Swiss parliamentary elections 1872
The Swiss parliamentary elections in 1872 took place on October 27, 1872. There were 135 seats in the National Council to choose from (7 more than before). The elections were made according to the majority vote , with the country divided into 48 national council constituencies of different sizes . The election campaign was marked by the dispute over the impending total revision of the Swiss federal constitution , which had failed six months earlier; the elections ended in a clear victory for supporters of yet another attempt at revision. In terms of party politics, the liberals (or radical liberals) were again the strongest force, while the Catholic conservatives were able to gain the most. The newly elected parliament met for the first time in the 9th legislative period on December 2, 1872.
Reallocation of constituencies
Based on the results of the census of 1870, a new division of the constituencies was required by law. According to the principle established in 1848 that a National Council must represent 20,000 "souls" or a fraction of over 10,000 souls (based on the total population), the total number of seats increased from 128 to 135. Of the seven Two additional mandates were held in the canton of Bern and one each in the cantons of Friborg , Neuchâtel , Solothurn , St. Gallen and Zurich . During the consultation , a controversy arose as to whether the total population meant the local resident population or the "local people" at a certain location on the day of the count. With the principle of local presence, the cantons of Geneva and Vaud would have received an additional mandate due to the large number of travelers. All responding cantons with the exception of Geneva and Friborg voted for the resident population as the basis for calculation. The canton of Ticino wanted to count the number of Swiss living abroad analogous to its cantonal voting rights, but was rejected. In addition, the Federal Council had to explicitly point out that the number of seats in a canton is calculated based on the total population and not on the population of an electoral district. Otherwise it would have been possible for the cantons of Zurich, Bern and Vaud to manipulate the fractions by skillfully drawing constituency boundaries so that they would have received one more mandate than they were actually entitled to.
The reallocation deviated from the "optimum" recommended in 1850 of four seats per constituency in other cases, similar to 1863 in the canton of Thurgau : two Bernese and one Zurich constituencies and the canton of Neuchâtel each received five seats. A division in the ratio of 4: 1 or 3: 2, from which political minorities might have benefited, was strictly rejected in these cases. Despite the unchanged number of seats in the canton of Lucerne , there was a complete reorganization . There the three previous constituencies were felt to be unnatural, as they took no account of geographical conditions and arbitrarily cut up the canton. There were now three two-member constituencies and one single constituency, most of which were based on the district boundaries. In the canton of Friborg, too, the borders of the constituencies were redrawn so that they corresponded to the district boundaries. There were marginal changes to balance the population between the constituencies in the cantons of Bern, St. Gallen and Vaud. There were now a total of 48 constituencies, one more than before. Following the approval of the National Council and the Council of States, the “Federal Act on Federal Elections and Votes” came into force on July 19, 1872.
Election campaign
The centralized total revision of the Swiss Federal Constitution failed in the referendum on May 12, 1872 with 50.5% no votes. Due to the close result, the proponents of the revision agreed to try a second attempt and to strive for a mediating solution between centralists and federalists. The Kulturkampf , which was triggered by the proclamation of the papal infallibility dogma and reached its climax in Switzerland in 1872/73, had a major influence on the election campaign . The Catholic Conservatives endeavored to show a willingness to compromise and not to provide the political opponents from the radical liberal camp with an excuse to revive the hostile atmosphere during the era of the Freischarzug and the Sonderbund . Under the influence of the former Federal Councilor Jakob Dubs , a “federalist front” emerged. This closed the Catholic and Reformed Federalists of German Switzerland with the Antizentralisten of Romandie together. As a result, denominational differences could largely be kept out of the election campaign. In addition to the religious, there was also a nationalist component: after the Franco-Prussian War , society was divided into sympathizers of the Third French Republic and admirers of the German Empire . The federally-minded French-speaking Swiss feared a Germanization of Switzerland and warned against the " Verpreussung " of the country.
With the elections, revisionists and anti-revisionists pursued the sole aim of strengthening their position in parliament. Efforts focused on replacing opponents or supporters of the constitutional revision, which resulted in a highly personal election campaign. Jakob Dubs wanted to transform the "federalist front" he had founded into a kind of national-federalist party, but the camps, which were only united on the constitutional question, turned out to be far too heterogeneous: French-speaking and Catholic conservatives only had contact with one another through Dubs, otherwise they acted Cut. The anti-revisionist strategy was therefore limited to strengthening its strongholds. The proponents of the revision, however, were better organized and had a central committee with Carl Feer-Herzog as president. With their common strategic goal, moderate liberals, liberals and democrats were more able to bridge their differences. In French-speaking Switzerland, on the other hand, the Central Committee was only successful in the canton of Neuchâtel.
During the 8th legislative period , there were nine replacement elections in as many constituencies due to vacancies ; the moderate liberals lost a total of three seats. In 1872 there were a total of 72 ballots (five more than three years earlier). Only in 30 constituencies were the elections decided after the first ballot. As usual in the second half of the 19th century, several incumbent federal councilors ran for a compliment election ; d. In other words, they stood for election as national councilors in order to have the voters confirm their legitimacy as members of the state government. Paul Cérésole , a proponent of the centralized revision of 1872, was considered ineligible in his home canton of Vaud, which is why he was elected in the Bernese Oberland . Wilhelm Matthias Naeff failed in the canton of St. Gallen in 1866 and 1869, which is why he now completely renounced the choice of compliments; Nevertheless, he was just confirmed in office by the Federal Assembly .
With the last supplementary election on February 16, 1873, the National Council appeared to be complete. But in the canton of Ticino there were numerous irregularities and election fraud, so that the Federal Assembly had to cancel the results in both Ticino constituencies. The re-election took place on October 19, 1873, the second ballots finally on November 2, 1873. Compared to 1866, the turnout increased by 8 percent. The value of 61.2% was the highest ever in a National Council election and was exceeded only two more times in the Majorz era that lasted until 1919. Participation tripled in the cantons of Ticino and Zug , and it doubled in the cantons of Basel-Landschaft and Neuchâtel. It was highest in the canton of Uri with 93.1%, and lowest in the canton of Schwyz with 39.8%. The moderate liberals turned out to be the losers, while the Catholic conservatives were able to gain the most. To contemporary commentators, however, the attitude of those elected to the constitutional revision appeared to be significantly more important than their party membership: the 87 revisionists were compared to only 48 anti-revisionists, which marked the further course of the debate.
Result of the National Council elections
Overall result
Of 632,901 male eligible voters, 392,843 took part in the elections, which corresponds to a turnout of 62.1%. In the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden , Appenzell Innerrhoden , Glarus , Obwalden , Nidwalden and Uri , the election was no longer made by the respective rural municipality , but for the first time, as in the rest of Switzerland, by means of a ballot box.
The 135 seats in the National Council were distributed as follows:
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Note: An assignment of candidates to parties and political groups is only possible to a limited extent. In line with the political reality of the 19th century, one can rather speak of party currents or directions, the boundaries of which are partly fluid. The party names used are therefore an ideological assessment.
Results in the cantons
The table below shows the distribution of seats won by cantons.
| Canton | seats total |
electoral circles |
participating pation |
FL | KK | LM | DL | HE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aargau
|
10 | 3 | 85.3% | 4th | +2 | 2 | 4th | -1 | - | -1 | |||
 Appenzell Ausserrhoden
|
2 | 1 | 78.7% | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
 Appenzell Innerrhoden
|
1 | 1 | 89.9% | 1 | |||||||||
 Basel-Country
|
3 | 1 | 52.7% | 2 | - | -1 | 1 | +1 | |||||
 Basel city
|
2 | 1 | 62.5% | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
 Bern
|
25th | 6th | 43.2% | 23 | +4 | - | -1 | 2 | -1 | ||||
 Freiburg
|
6th | 2 | 68.6% | 6th | +1 | ||||||||
 Geneva
|
4th | 1 | 40.7% | 4th | +1 | - | -1 | ||||||
 Glarus
|
2 | 1 | 63.7% | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
 Grisons
|
5 | 3 | 78.0% | 1 | -2 | 1 | 2 | +1 | 1 | +1 | |||
 Lucerne
|
7th | 4th | 61.6% | 1 | -1 | 5 | 1 | +1 | |||||
 Neuchâtel
|
5 | 1 | 58.8% | 5 | +1 | ||||||||
 Nidwalden
|
1 | 1 | 77.2% | 1 | |||||||||
 Obwalden
|
1 | 1 | 70.6% | 1 | |||||||||
 Schaffhausen
|
2 | 1 | 75.2% | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
 Schwyz
|
2 | 1 | 39.8% | 2 | +1 | - | -1 | ||||||
 Solothurn
|
4th | 1 | 77.4% | 4th | +2 | - | -1 | ||||||
 St. Gallen
|
10 | 3 | 66.7% | 3 | 1 | 4th | -1 | 2 | +2 | ||||
 Ticino
|
6th | 2 | 56.1% | 2 | -2 | 4th | +3 | - | -1 | ||||
 Thurgau
|
5 | 1 | 79.4% | 1 | 4th | ||||||||
 Uri
|
1 | 1 | 93.1% | 1 | |||||||||
 Vaud
|
11 | 3 | 45.6% | 7th | 4th | ||||||||
 Valais
|
5 | 3 | 63.0% | 1 | -1 | 4th | +1 | ||||||
 train
|
1 | 1 | 63.7% | - | -1 | 1 | +1 | ||||||
 Zurich
|
14th | 4th | 72.8% | 7th | +2 | 7th | -1 | ||||||
| Switzerland | 135 | 48 | 62.1% | 60 | +3 | 30th | +6 | 27 | -3 | 15th | +1 | 3 | ± 0 |
Council of States
The members of the Council of States were only able to determine who were eligible to vote in the cantons of Obwalden , Solothurn , Thurgau and Zurich (in Obwalden by the rural community). In all other cantons, the election was made indirectly by the respective cantonal parliaments .
literature
- Erich Gruner : The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919 . tape 1 , first part. Francke Verlag, Bern 1978, ISBN 3-7720-1442-9 .
- Erich Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919 . tape 1 , second part. Francke Verlag, Bern 1978, ISBN 3-7720-1443-7 .
- Erich Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919 . tape 2 . Francke Verlag, Bern 1978, ISBN 3-7720-1444-5 (notes).
- Erich Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919 . tape 3 . Francke Verlag, Bern 1978, ISBN 3-7720-1445-3 (tables, graphics, maps).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 1, first part, p. 346.
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 1, first part, pp. 346-347.
- ^ Message from the Federal Council to the High Federal Assembly on the elections to the National Council (of June 24, 1872). (PDF, 722 kB) In: Federal Gazette No. 30 of July 6, 1872. admin.ch, May 21, 2013, accessed on July 15, 2014 .
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 1, first part, pp. 347-349.
- ^ Andreas Kley: Federal Constitution (BV). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 1, Part Two, pp. 670-672.
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 1, Part Two, pp. 674-675.
- ↑ Paul Fink: The «choice of compliments» by incumbent Federal Councilors in the National Council 1851-1896 . In: Allgemeine Geschichtsforschende Gesellschaft der Schweiz (Hrsg.): Swiss journal for history . tape 45 , issue 2. Schwabe AG , 1995, ISSN 0036-7834 , p. 218-219 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-81131 .
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 3, p. 136
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 3, p. 369.
- ^ A b Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848–1919. Volume 1, Part Two, p. 676.
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 3, p. 369.
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 3, p. 485.
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 3, pp. 127-141
- ↑ Gruner: The elections to the Swiss National Council 1848-1919. Volume 3, p. 353.
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