Swiss People's Party

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Swiss People's Party
SVP.svg SVP UDC.svg
Establishment date: 22nd September 1971
Ideology: National conservatism , right-wing populism , economic liberalism , EU skepticism
Presidium: Marco Chiesa
Marco Chiesa (2018)
Vice Presidium: Celine Amaudruz ,
Magdalena Martullo-Blocher
Secretary General: Emanuel Waeber
Members of the Federal Council: Ueli Maurer , Guy Parmelin
Members: 90,000
(as of 2014)
Proportion of women: In the National Council: 24.5%
In the Council of States: 0%
(as of November 17, 2019)
Share of voters: 25.6%
(as of: NR elections 2019)
National Council:
53/200
Council of States:
6/46
Fraction (BV): SVP parliamentary group
Group President: Thomas Aeschi
Cantonal parliaments:
545/2609

(As of November 2019)
Cantonal governments:
24/154

(As of November 2019)
Party structure: 27 cantonal parties
Groupings: Young SVP
AUNS
Young4FUN.ch
Association of Taxpayers
Website: www.svp.ch

The Swiss People's Party (SVP Switzerland) , French Union démocratique du center (UDC), Italian Unione Democratica del Centro (UDC) ( German  literally «Democratic Union of the Middle» ), Romansh Partida populara Svizra ? / i (PPS), is a nationally conservative , right-wing populist and economically liberal political party in Switzerland . It has been the strongest party by seats in the National Council since 1999 , making it the largest parliamentary group in the Federal Assembly . It is the third largest party in terms of membership. Audio file / audio sample

introduction

The SVP emerged in 1971 from the Farmers, Trade and Citizens Party (BGB) and the Democratic Party (DP) of the cantons of Graubünden and Glarus. The SVP has undergone a profound change in the last twenty years under the influence of the major entrepreneur Christoph Blocher . In addition to the modernization and professionalization of the party apparatus, the repositioning of the content on the right edge of the party spectrum is particularly noticeable, which has generated great tensions both internally and externally. These escalated in connection with the Federal Council elections in 2007 with Blocher's non-re-election as Federal Councilor and the split off from the Civil Democratic Party (BDP), which remained in the Federal Council while the SVP withdrew into the opposition . At the end of 2008, another SVP member, Ueli Maurer, was elected to the government, and in 2015 a second, Guy Parmelin . In the federal elections (in proportional representation ), the SVP has been the strongest party nationwide since 2003.

story

overview

The SVP was originally a centrist peasant party , but changed from a right-wing conservative to a right-wing populist people 's party from the 1980s under the unofficial leadership of the Zurich entrepreneur Christoph Blocher . Today it positions itself pointedly to the right in the political spectrum and engages in uncompromising rhetoric with which it regularly exposes itself to the accusations of simplification and populism . Political opponents and left-liberal media such as the British newspaper The Independent have accused her of extremism , which the party denies.

Federal Councilor Ueli Maurer

In terms of electoral strength, the party had long been fourth behind the FDP, CVP and SP. However, from 1991 onwards it steadily increased its national share of the vote, became the strongest party in the Swiss parliamentary elections in 2003 and demanded a second Federal Council seat for Christoph Blocher, whereupon he was elected. The SVP achieved another election success in the Swiss parliamentary elections in 2007 . After Blocher's first term of office as Federal Councilor, which was marked by controversy, he was no longer confirmed by the United Federal Assembly in the 2007 re-election. In his place came Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf , the first woman from the ranks of the SVP in the Federal Council. This election started a development that led to the SVP leaving the Federal Council in 2008. With the election of Ueli Maurer to the Federal Council in December 2008, however, the phase of opposition politics ended again. Even after the renewal elections in December 2011, the SVP was only represented by one member in the state government, although it is entitled to two of the seven seats due to its electoral strength of around 27 percent according to the magic formula . Since Guy Parmelin was elected to the Federal Council in 2016, the SVP has had two seats in the Federal Council.

founding

Differentiation from liberalism

The political spectrum of Switzerland after its constitution as a modern federal state in 1848 was shaped by the two civil war parties of the previous Sonderbund War : the victorious liberal forces on the one hand and the defeated conservative forces on the other. The liberal parliamentary group - the later Free Democratic Party  - provided an absolute majority in the United Federal Assembly and the entire Federal Council. Towards the end of the 19th century the process of integrating the Catholic-Conservative and later also the Social Democratic forces into the system of government began. A milestone in this development was the introduction of proportional representation when appointing the National Council. As a result, the supremacy of the liberals was more and more questioned, and tensions within the liberals intensified. The contrast between town and country, as well as conflicts between the peasant class and small businesses on the one hand, and large-scale entrepreneurship on the other, led to splits and party foundations in various cantons. The founding parties of the SVP mentioned below emerged against this background.

Farmers, Trade and Citizens' Party (BGB)

Cantonal farmers ', trades and citizens' parties existed even before the BGB was founded. In particular, the farmers' party, founded in Bern in 1918, had great success and, at the latest, with the entry of the commercial wing and the old liberal-conservative party of the canton of Bern, it became the “state-supporting” force in the canton. Although founded as an opposition party and smaller than the Social Democratic Party, the "Bernese Peasant and Citizens' Party" became a Federal Council party in 1929 with the election of Rudolf Minger . As a result of an existential crisis caused by the so-called « Young Peasant Movement », the BGB was founded in December 1936 as a nationwide party. During the time of its existence, it held one seat of government at the federal level, and a total of five federal councilors came from its ranks.

Democratic Party (DP)

The Democratic Party was founded at the Swiss level in 1942. It was also an amalgamation of several cantonal parties, some of which had existed for a long time. It represented farmers, traders and representatives of the liberal professions according to its own claims. It was very popular in the cantons of Graubünden and Glarus, but also in the city of Winterthur ( École de Winterthour ), where the Democrats dissolved again in the FDP. During the period of its independent existence, it did not have a seat in the state government. Co-founder of the SVP and former SVP Federal Councilor Leon Schlumpf (in office: 1979–1987) is a former member of the Democratic Party of Graubünden .

Merger to form SVP

After the Democratic Party had reunited with the FDP in the canton of Zurich in the 1970s, the DP cantonal sections of Glarus and Graubünden merged with the BGB on September 22, 1971 (constitution: December 18, 1971) to form the Swiss People's Party (SVP) . This made the SVP one of the most active parties in German-speaking Switzerland, which initially defined itself as a center party with social-liberal elements. The French name of the party, Union démocratique du center , or Democratic Center Union , which is still used today, is evidence of this original orientation .

Ascent

The SVP parliamentary group in the National Council in 1996, Toni Brunner in the middle , Ueli Maurer in the back right

The party subsequently showed small but steady growth. Their share of the vote in the National Council stagnated in the 1980s, however, at 10 to 12 percent of the vote. This began to change significantly from the 1980s, and no later than the 1990s. Reasons for this can be found in the increasing disappearance of traditional party ties, especially from the FDP and the CVP, the transformation of the SP from a workers' to a medium-sized party and the increasingly national-conservative discourse, as it was initially pursued primarily by part of the Zurich section of the SVP, be seen. The successful campaign against UN membership in 1986, from which the AUNS emerged , is interpreted as a striking sign of the strengthening of these forces . In 1992 the SVP was the only ruling party to oppose Switzerland joining the European Economic Area (EEA). In the referendum on the EEA with a record turnout, a narrow majority of the Swiss population supported this position, which meant an enormous prestige victory for the party and its spokesman, the then President of the Zurich cantonal party, Christoph Blocher. In other issues (e.g. the NEAT debate, the right to asylum, protection of the population from dangerous criminals), the SVP increasingly succeeded in addressing bourgeois (protest) voters who no longer felt represented by the FDP and CVP. Mandate holders from far-right opposition parties such as the Swiss Democrats (SD) or the Swiss Freedom Party (FPS) also switched to the SVP. This made these small parties almost insignificant.

In the 1999 National Council elections, the SVP increased its number of seats in the National Council from 29 to 44 and became the party with the highest number of votes. In the parliamentary elections in 2003 it won 55 of 200 seats in the National Council and was also the strongest party by seats. After it had always been represented by one member in the Swiss government as part of the so-called “ magic formula ”, it ultimately claimed a second Federal Council seat for Christoph Blocher in the subsequent Federal Council elections in 2003, in addition to its previous representative Samuel Schmid . This narrowly won against the previous head of justice Ruth Metzler (CVP).

The SVP achieved its most successful election result at national level in 2007. With 62 members of the national council, it was almost the largest representation of a party in the large chamber since the introduction of the proportional representation system - only the FDP achieved one more seat in 1919. The further increase in the voting share compared to the National Council elections in 2003 is due to gains in all of German and French-speaking Switzerland. This is remarkable in so far as the party had long played only a marginal role in Latin Switzerland . In 2003 she made her first breakthrough in French-speaking Switzerland , while in Ticino she has so far not been able to prevail against the competition from the Lega dei Ticinesi .

2008 split

Parliamentary elections 2007

In the summer of 2007, domestic political tensions were further fueled by the sheep poster as a controversial SVP advertising poster, by the Roschacher affair and by fundamental debates about the SVP's work style, political role and participation in government. In July, when National Councilor Ulrich Siegrist left the SVP parliamentary group in Aargau , the first split took place. He founded the new party Forum Liberale Mitte , but remained a party member of the SVP.

With regard to the federal parliamentary elections in autumn 2007 and the subsequent federal elections, the SVP threatened to join the opposition if one of its two federal councilors, Samuel Schmid or Christoph Blocher, was not re-elected. The party ensured with an unprecedented, highly person-centered election campaign with the slogan «Vote SVP! - Strengthen Blocher! " further for tensions, which finally erupted into riots shortly before the parliamentary elections and aroused concern among all parties. The SVP emerged from the parliamentary elections as the winner. She increased her share of the vote by 2.2 percentage points.

Federal Council elections 2007

While Samuel Schmid was confirmed with a brilliant result by the United Federal Assembly in the subsequent Federal Council elections, Blocher surprisingly lost to his party colleague Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, even though she had not run for office. The electoral system does not require an official nomination as a prerequisite for an election, and it is not uncommon for agreements to take place to thwart official and unofficial candidacies , especially during the so-called " night of long knives ".

«Opposition» 2008

The SVP accused the newly elected Federal Councilor of having betrayed her party colleagues and of damaging the interests of the party by accepting her election - which was mainly due to votes received from other parties, which made her unsustainable as a member and representative of SVP Switzerland. The SVP then excluded both of its federal councilors from the parliamentary group meetings , but not from the party. Nevertheless, the SVP parliamentary group declared itself to be the "opposition".

Since the national parent party cannot decide on the exclusion of members of a cantonal party according to the statutes , Widmer-Schlumpf was asked by the Swiss central board on April 4, 2008 to leave the party and the Federal Council. The ultimatum sparked discussions within the SVP. The Cantonal Board of SVP Thurgau was concerned and called for a return to a constructive policy. After Widmer-Schlumpf's refusal, the then SVP Graubünden was given an ultimatum to exclude them, otherwise an expulsion procedure would be opened against the entire cantonal party. After this ultimatum, the central board of SVP Switzerland decided on May 17, 2008 to open a formal expulsion procedure against the Graubünden cantonal party, and on June 1, 2008 to expel it at the end of June. The SVP Graubünden reoriented itself on June 16, constituted itself as the Graubünden Civil Democratic Party (BDP Graubünden) and waived an appeal against its exclusion, whereby some district and local parties split off and on June 18 a new SVP Graubünden founded. In the canton of Bern, 300 supporters of the "Bernese wing" followed the Graubünden and founded the BDP Bern on June 21, 2008 . A similar group was formed in the canton of Glarus, which founded the BDP Glarus in August . These three cantonal parties, which have a total of 68 mandate holders in the federal government and cantons, founded the BDP Switzerland in November 2008 .

Federal Council election 2008

At the delegates' meeting on March 1, 2008 in Frauenfeld, Toni Brunner was elected as the successor to the resigning Ueli Maurer as the new party president. In addition, a new five-person Vice-Presidency was appointed, which included former Federal Councilor Christoph Blocher, former National Councilor Walter Frey , National Councilor Adrian Amstutz , National Councilor Yvan Perrin and National Councilor Jasmin Hutter (replaced by Nadja Pieren in 2010 ). This increased the party leadership, in which parliamentary group president Caspar Baader also took a seat, to seven people.

In the aftermath of the Roschacher affair, investigations were started against Brunner on suspicion of passing on secret GPK papers to Christoph Blocher.

With the election of Ueli Maurer to the Federal Council to replace the resigned Samuel Schmid in December 2008, the party declared its "opposition" to be over.

Election results in the 2010s

After two decades of increasing voter shares, the SVP suffered losses for the first time in the 2011 parliamentary elections . The party lost several seats in both the National Council and the Council of States. Contrary to the announced election target of thirty percent of the vote, the party lost eight seats in the National Council with a minus of 2.3 percentage points. The SVP also recorded losses in the Council of States, where it had to give up a total of two seats after a broad-based “storm on the Stöckli” with the aim of “cracking the dominance of the CVP”. Their right-wing top candidates such as parliamentary group leader Caspar Baader (BL) and French-speaking Swiss favorite Jean-François Rime (FR) failed in the first ballot. Vice President Adrian Amstutz (BE) and Ulrich Giezendanner (AG), who took the place of Maximilian Reimann , were unable to defend their seats. National Councilor Guy Parmelin (VD), Party President Toni Brunner (SG) and former Federal Councilor Christoph Blocher (ZH) were not elected to the Council of States in the second ballot.

In the run-up to the 2011 Federal Council elections, the SVP parliamentary group nominated Bruno Zuppiger , President of the Swiss Trade Association (SGV) , and Jean-François Rime , member of the SGV's board of directors, as Federal Council candidates . After allegations by journalist Urs Paul Engeler in the Weltwoche regarding irregularities in an inheritance matter, Zuppiger had to withdraw his candidacy. The president of the Swiss Farmers' Association , Hansjörg Walter , was nominated in his place . The party was not able to implement its demand for a second seat in the wake of the nomination shaped by the Zuppiger case and an attack on the second FDP seat that snubbed the liberals. Federal Councilor Ueli Maurer, however, was confirmed with a clear re-election in office.

In the 2015 National Council elections , the SVP was the strongest party with 29.4 percent. This corresponds to an increase of 2.8 percentage points.

In the Swiss parliamentary elections in 2019 , the SVP lost 12 seats in the National Council (corresponds to a loss of 18.5 percent), but gained one seat in the Council of States (corresponds to a gain of 20.0 percent).

Political classification

Political positions

The position of the SVP in the political spectrum of Switzerland (2007)

The policy of the SVP is characterized by national conservative positions for the preservation of unrestricted political sovereignty for Switzerland and an emphatically conservative social model . In addition, the party is strongly oriented towards the principle of personal responsibility of the individual and is skeptical of any expansion of state competencies. This attitude is expressed in the categorical rejection of joining the EU and military engagements abroad, as well as state expansion projects in social and educational policy .

The political work focuses on the areas of foreign policy , immigration and internal security as well as tax and social policy .

In terms of foreign policy , the party fights against all the projects of integration into intergovernmental and, above all, supranational structures ( UN , EEA , EU, Schengen and Dublin agreements , rapprochement with NATO ). She advocates a strict interpretation of the country's neutrality and the retention of the strong role of the Swiss Army as guarantor of national defense. This should remain a militia army and under no circumstances should it expand its activities to include missions abroad.

In terms of foreigners policy , the party advocates a clear tightening of asylum law and a curb on immigration. The SVP also warns against “immigration into the social system” and criticizes the high proportion of foreigners in the disability pensions, which have risen sharply in terms of numbers, and in social assistance . In the opinion of the party, such benefits would often be paid out unjustifiably and thus tax money would be wasted. Many SVP exponents are also critical of Islam , for example by campaigning for a ban on the construction of minarets . In a controversial campaign in the run-up to the local council elections in 2010, the SVP of the city ​​of Zurich also turned against German employees and academics. In an advertisement from December 15, 2009 in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung , she warned: “Foreign squabbles are pushing our workplaces”. "Arrogant foreigners" are to blame for excessive rents, for example. “German felt” would spread, “because Germans mainly employ Germans - at the university and in the hospitals”.

In legal and constitutional policy, the SVP - in contrast to right-wing populist parties in neighboring countries - is clearly committed to democracy and advocates direct democracy . A core concern of the SVP is to combat the increasing influence of the judiciary on politics, which it has lamented . In the opinion of the SVP, this influence - particularly through international law  - is increasingly calling Swiss direct democracy into question. People's law legitimized by direct democracy should, according to the majority opinion of the SVP, take precedence over court decisions and - according to the SVP, only so-called, since it is not democratically legitimized - international law . The rule of law is, as the courts would increasingly defy the popular will, sometimes devalued by the SVP to "judge the state" and criticized. For example, the SVP is calling for the ballot box to be held on the naturalization of foreigners, even after this practice, which has been practiced in many municipalities  , has been ruled unconstitutional by the Federal Supreme Court due to the lack of justification for such decisions. A corresponding cantonal popular initiative of the SVP was declared invalid, and the federal popular initiative “for democratic naturalization” was clearly rejected by the people and the cantons. According to the will of the SVP, the racism criminal norm and the Racism Commission should also be abolished in the interests of freedom of expression.

In economic matters , the SVP represents a supply-side policy . She is calling for tax cuts and cuts or at least a stabilization of government spending. As a result, she gets into a dilemma with regard to her positioning in agricultural policy, where, out of consideration for the still significant rural part of her core electorate, she cannot easily oppose agricultural subsidies and the current system of direct payments . The SVP also views the free movement of persons agreed with the EU and in particular its expansion to new EU member states with skepticism and associates it with unrestricted immigration and increasing crime.

In the area of environmental, transport and energy policy, the SVP mainly votes against state measures to protect the environment. In terms of transport policy, the party supports the expansion of the Swiss motorway network and is against preferring public transport to private transport. In principle, she supports major projects such as Bahn 2000 or NEAT , but criticizes the development of costs and calls for more transparency. She declares the policy of relocating heavy transit traffic to have already failed. In energy and environmental policy, the party rejects incentive taxes on environmentally harmful energy sources and calls for an expansion of nuclear energy . The party considers the statements of climate research on global warming to be “dubious” . At the same time, the SVP and many of its exponents are questioning the need for climate protection . There is no need for new laws, new technologies would reduce greenhouse emissions sufficiently. In addition, Switzerland as a business location should not be adversely affected by climate policy. Measures to reduce CO 2 emissions that are limited to Switzerland are strictly rejected by the SVP and, if necessary, a global approach is declared justifiable.

In social and social policy , the SVP categorically rejects expansion projects for the welfare state and advocates a conservative image of society. For example, she is against paid maternity leave or state-funded day nurseries . It also demands that parents who take care of their children independently are not disadvantaged in terms of taxation compared to families who take care of their children. State support for equality between women and men is also met with skepticism. The SVP also refrains from taking any measures to promote women within the party, and its parliamentary group has the lowest percentage of women in the federal parliament. The party is also in favor of a repressive drug policy - in particular against the legalization of the use of drugs such as cannabis  - but also against government measures to restrict alcohol and tobacco consumption. In education policy, she opposes tendencies to shift responsibility for upbringing from the family to state institutions. The party also deplores the excessive influence of anti-authoritarian ideas from the sixty-eight movement . In general, the party calls for tougher sanctions against violations of the social order and - especially in the areas of social and educational policy  - a return to the merit principle .

Internal party differences

In terms of general political orientation and style, there were two different currents up until the split in 2008:

  • The “Berner Flügel” , whose representatives come mainly from the traditional “SVP strongholds” of the cantons of Bern (e.g. Federal Councilors Rudolf Gnägi , Adolf Ogi and Samuel Schmid ) and Graubünden (e.g. Federal Councilors Leon Schlumpf and Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf ), represented bourgeois-conservative content, but acted as a cooperative government partner at canton and municipality level. The focus of the political work was on representing the interests of farmers, small and medium-sized businesses. A moderate opening of Switzerland to the outside world was advocated. Among the best-known representatives of this direction were former Federal Councilors Adolf Ogi and Samuel Schmid, who were regularly criticized and disavowed by more radical representatives of the SVP because of their opinions deviating from the party line.
  • The “Zurich wing” , to which exponents from the Zurich, St. Gallen and Thurgau sections are assigned, saw the SVP primarily as an oppositional protest party - even where it was part of the cantonal, communal and (temporarily) Federal executive (by Christoph Blocher ) was represented. The SVP representatives from Zurich tried to push through the above-mentioned party program without compromise.

With the increasing success of the "Zurich Wing", recognizable by the marked increase in the proportion of voters in all German and French-speaking cantons, the moderate wing was pushed back even in the Canton of Bern. The “Zurich wing” shaped the party, only the Graubünden section and parts of the Bern and Glarus cantonal parties continued to pursue a central course.

After Blocher was no longer re-elected as Federal Councilor - and was replaced by Widmer-Schlumpf from the moderate SVP Graubünden - there was finally a break in 2008 between the moderate "Berner" and the uncompromising "Zurich" wing in the form of splits in Graubünden, Bern and Glarus. The political course of the "Zurich wing" had thus largely prevailed in the SVP elite.

Style and electorate

Christoph Blocher

Under the influence of Christoph Blocher, the SVP moved from a traditional, strongly federalist, rural-Protestant, right-wing artisans 'and farmers' party to a tightly-run one in the canton of Zurich in the 1990s, and then gradually throughout Switzerland as well uniformly appearing right-wing populist protest movement, which finds supporters throughout Switzerland as a “ catch-all party ” in most social classes. In recent years she has pursued a pointed opposition course on various factual issues, which she did not give up in her large majority even after Blocher was elected to the Federal Council. Like the Social Democrats, but more accentuated than them, it thus played a dual role as a ruling and opposition party. For a long time, this role had proven to be surprisingly successful for the SVP.

In its public relations work, the SVP stands out above all for its provocative election and voting campaigns , designed in a boldly simplistic boulevard style : in 1998, for example, the so-called "knife-piercing advertisement" and the question "Luxury for sexual criminals?" in connection with a loan application for a sexual and violent offender treatment program for discussion. In 2004, on the occasion of a referendum on a sales tax increase , leftists were insulted as "red rats". In 2005, the SVP presented the Schengen and Dublin treaties as a Trojan horse , which had the purpose of bringing about accession to the EU, and the Young SVP of the Canton of Valais used the Swiss identity card in a vote against a proposal to liberalize naturalization for Secondos mounted picture of Osama bin Laden . As part of the election campaign for the parliamentary elections in 2007, the SVP launched the so-called « deportation initiative » and promoted it with a pictorial representation of a black sheep , which also attracted attention abroad and the state government received a request from the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism , Doudou Diène . In addition, the SVP developed an online game called “Zottel rettet die Schweiz”, in which the player must prevent Swiss passports from being “squandered” and judges from being able to naturalize foreigners. The game was heavily criticized by the media.

SVP poster for a referendum in 2010

The SVP also regularly causes a stir with provocative buzzwords. B. dubbed “left and nice”, “tired of home” or liberal as “soft-minded”. The first formula goes back to 1993, when the SVP announced in an advertisement that it was "thanks to the left and the nice: more crime, more drugs, more fear". The SVP accuses the other parties of a lack of closeness to the citizens, among other things with the stimulus word “classe politique” . In 2003, the term "pseudo-invalid", brought up by Christoph Blocher, became the unword of the year.

In the same year, the historian Georg Kreis (FDP member), at the time President of the Federal Commission against Racism , accused the SVP of moving "in the gray area between racism and xenophobia " because of a campaign on asylum policy .

Because of its numerous media-based statements on current events and its dominant campaigns, the SVP is said to lead a conspicuous “permanent election campaign” that pays off accordingly. In an election poll in the run-up to the 2007 parliamentary elections, it was found that 47 percent of those questioned rated the SVP's election campaign as the most visible, while the corresponding values ​​for the other parties were all below 10 percent. The financing of this election campaign was estimated at CHF 20 million in 2011, but the SVP has not disclosed it.

Election results

Party strength of the SVP in the 2019 National Council elections

National elections since 1971

Voting shares 1971–2019
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
choice Share of the vote National Council Council of States
1971 11.1%
23/200
5/44
1975 9.9%
21/200
5/44
1979 11.6%
23/200
5/46
1983 11.1%
23/200
5/46
1987 11.0%
25/200
4/46
1991 11.9%
25/200
4/46
1995 14.9%
29/200
5/46
1999 22.6%
44/200
7/46
2003 26.8%
55/200
8/46
2007 29.0%
62/200
7/46
2011 26.6%
54/200
5/46
2015 29.4%
65/200
5/46
2019 25.6%
53/200
6/46

Cantonal elections since 2007

year SwitzerlandSwitzerland 
NO 		Cantonal parliaments
Canton ZurichCanton Zurich 
ZH 		Canton BernCanton Bern 
BE 		Canton lucerneCanton lucerne 
LU 		Canton of UriCanton of Uri 
UR 		Canton of SchwyzCanton of Schwyz 
SZ 		Canton of ObwaldenCanton of Obwalden 
OW 		Canton of NidwaldenCanton of Nidwalden 
NW 		Canton of GlarusCanton of Glarus 
GL 		Canton of ZugCanton of Zug 
ZG 		Canton of FriborgCanton of Friborg 
FR 		Canton of SolothurnCanton of Solothurn 
SO 		Canton of Basel-StadtCanton of Basel-Stadt 
BS 		Canton of Basel-CountryCanton of Basel-Country 
BL 		Canton of SchaffhausenCanton of Schaffhausen 
SH 		Canton of Appenzell AusserrhodenCanton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden 
AR 		Canton of Appenzell InnerrhodenCanton of Appenzell Innerrhoden 
AI 		Canton of St. GallenCanton of St. Gallen 
SG 		canton of Grisonscanton of Grisons 
GR 		Kanton AargauKanton Aargau 
AG 		Canton of ThurgauCanton of Thurgau 
TG 		Canton of TicinoCanton of Ticino 
TI 		Canton of VaudCanton of Vaud 
VD 		Canton of ValaisCanton of Valais 
VS 		Canton of NeuchâtelCanton of Neuchâtel 
NE 		Canton of GenevaCanton of Geneva 
GE 		Canton of JuraCanton of Jura 
JU
2007 29.0 30.5 18.2 22.5 * * 4.6 15.6
2008 30.4 37.5 13.9 32.6 30.5 36.4
2009 19.4 31.9 11.5 12.7 8.6
2010 26.6 21.1 26.6 26.3 22.7 * 8.5
2011 26.6 29.6 22.1 18.6 24.0 17.2 * 5.2
2012 24.6 34.0 15.0 33.6 25.4 32.0 30.5 17.1
2013 20.2 17.2 16.9 10.3
2014 29.0 24.5 29.1 28.8 23.6 *
2015 29.4 30.0 24.1 26.7 16.3 * 4.3 12.0
2016 24.1 33.1 19.7 14.3 35.1 29.5 31.9 32.6
2017 19.7 15.8 16.4 11.5
2018 26.8 24.5 25.9 25.3 22.4 * 7.3
2019 25.6 24.5 19.6 22.7 12.2 * 6.1
2020 24.6 33.2 ... 33.4 26.9 ... 32.3 ...
Legend: * - Landsgemeinde or major elections / community assemblies in several / all constituencies; ... - zuk. Elections in the current year; Election results in percent; Source:

Management level

The party's presidium consists of the president and three vice-presidents ( Celine Amaudruz and, since 2018, Marco Chiesa and Magdalena Martullo-Blocher ). Together with four other members ( Adrian Amstutz , Marcel Dettling , Thomas Matter and Sandra Sollberger ) they form the party leadership committee. The parliamentary group president has been Thomas Aeschi since November 2017, succeeding Adrian Amstutz.

Party presidents

The following politicians were party presidents of the Swiss People's Party:

General Secretaries

The following politicians were general secretaries of the Swiss People's Party:

Gallery of Federal Councilors of the SVP and the former BGB

Affiliate organizations

There are also some organizations that are formally independent of the party and concentrate on the particularly pointed representation of individual parts of the party program, with their key positions being exclusively in the hands of prominent SVP members:

documentation

literature

  • Hans-Georg Betz : Exclusionary Populism in Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. In: International Journal. Volume 56, 2001, pp. 393-420.
  • Pietro Boschetti: La conquête du pouvoir. Essai sur la montée de l'UDC. Zoé, Carouge / Geneva 2007.
  • Oliver Geden: Discourse strategies in right-wing populism. Freedom Party of Austria and Swiss People's Party between opposition and government participation. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-15127-4 .
  • Hans Hartmann, Franz Horvath: civil society from the right. The uncanny success story of the Zurich SVP. Realutopia-Verlag, Zurich 1995, ISBN 978-3-907586-11-2 .
  • Ludger Helms: Right-Wing Populist Parties in Austria and Switzerland: A Comparative Analysis of Electoral Support and Conditions of Success. In: West European Politics. 2/1997, pp. 37-52.
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  • Claude Longchamp : The national conservative revolt in the form of the SVP. An analysis of the 1999 National Council elections in Switzerland. In: Fritz Plasser, Peter A. Ulram, Franz Sommer (eds.): The Austrian voting behavior. WUV, Vienna 2000, ISBN 978-3-85114-754-4 , pp. 393-423.
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  • Christoph Mörgeli : farmers, citizens, federal councilors. 1917-2017. One hundred years of Zurich SVP. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-280-05663-9 .
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Web links

Commons : Swiss People's Party  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ The canton of Valais has two separate cantonal parties for the German-speaking Upper Valais and the French-speaking Lower Valais (see overview of the cantonal parties on the SVP website ).
  2. ↑ Federal Councilor Samuel Schmid, who thwarted the party's opposition strategy in a similar way by accepting his re-election, was declared "as good as clinically dead for our party members (...)" by the resigning party president Maurer , which is why a party exclusion procedure would be "a pure waste of time" . ( Samuel Schmid is as good as clinically dead. In: news. Swiss Television DRS, February 15th 2008, accessed 19 September 2011 . )
  3. ↑ The party statutes stipulate that an appeal can be submitted within 30 days (in this case by July 1st) and then the delegates' meeting (in this case on July 5th) will decide on it. Due to the largely known positioning of the individual delegates, a rejection of any appeal was expected in this case.
  4. ↑ 4 national councilors, 1 council of states, 2 federal councilors, 57 cantonal members of parliament, 4 government councilors.
  5. ↑ According to the offices of March 1, 2008, z. B. Amstutz then National Council.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Confederation in Brief 2014. (PDF; 14.8 MB) (No longer available online.) Swiss Federal Chancellery, February 28, 2014, archived from the original on August 9, 2014 ; Retrieved April 22, 2014 .
  2. ^ FSO: National Council elections result. FSO, October 18, 2015, accessed October 19, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Luzerner Zeitung of September 30, 1995, p. 19: "Without Blocher, almost nothing works ..."; Hanspeter Kriesi et al .: The rise of the SVP. Verlag NZZ, Zurich 2005, ISBN 978-3-03823-186-8 , p. 270: "The integration of Christoph Blocher, the central symbolic figure of the party ..."
  4. ↑ Oliver Geden: "We against the others": the SVP's recipe for success. In: NZZ am Sonntag via the Science and Politics Foundation . September 9, 2007 (PDF; 138 kB).
  5. ↑ a b Switzerland: Europe's heart of darkness? ( Memento of September 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Independent . September 7, 2007, accessed November 24, 2016.
  6. ↑ Thanks to SVP: The custody initiative can be implemented.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) In: SVP press service. September 17, 2007.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.svp.ch
  7. ↑ Heinz Bächinger: Ecole de Winterthour in the Winterthur Glossary.
  8. ^ Adolf Collenberg: Leon Schlumpf. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  9. ↑ Kriesi et al., 2005, p. 64.
  10. ^ Leuenberger Petra et al .: Tense problem situation ( Memento of December 5, 2004 in the Internet Archive ). In: gfs.bern , December 2001 (PDF; 351 kB).
  11. ↑ Kriesi et al., 2005, p. 66.
  12. ↑ a b c National Council elections: strength of the parties. (XLS) (No longer available online.) In: Statistisches Lexikon der Schweiz. Federal Statistical Office , November 23, 2011, archived from the original on February 27, 2014 ; Retrieved November 28, 2011 .
  13. ^ The SVP goes into the opposition as a whole. In: NZZ Online. December 18, 2007, accessed September 27, 2011 .
  14. ↑ a b Thurgauer SVP contradicts the parent party. In: Tages-Anzeiger Online. April 11, 2008, archived from the original on September 30, 2012 ; Retrieved September 24, 2011 .
  15. ^ Chronology of a party split. In: Tages-Anzeiger Online. June 13, 2008, archived from the original on October 8, 2012 ; Retrieved September 24, 2011 .
  16. ↑ SVP is serious about kicking the Bündner. In: NZZ Online. May 18, 2008.
  17. ↑ Eilgründung: Civic Party Switzerland, an offshoot of the SVP. In: Die Presse (Vienna). June 17, 2008.
  18. ↑ Brunner's immunity is to fall. In: 20 minutes . February 13, 2009.
  19. ↑ The future lies in the small concordance. In: NZZ Online. January 10, 2009.
  20. ↑ SVP prepared for elections in 101 days. (No longer available online.) Website of SVP Switzerland, July 14, 2011, archived from the original on August 20, 2011 ; Retrieved November 27, 2011 .
  21. ↑ SVP storm on Stöckli blocked. SVP representation in the Council of States smaller than before. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 27, 2011, accessed November 27, 2011 .
  22. ↑ Decision 11: Cantons. Basel-Landschaft: Council of States. In: Decision11.sf.tv. Swiss television, accessed on November 28, 2011 .
  23. ↑ Decision 11: Cantons. Freiburg: Council of States. In: Decision11.sf.tv. Swiss television, accessed on November 29, 2011 .
  24. ↑ Decision 11: Cantons. Bern: Council of States. In: Decision11.sf.tv. Swiss television, accessed on November 28, 2011 .
  25. ↑ Decision 11: Cantons. Aargau: Council of States. In: Decision11.sf.tv. Swiss television, accessed on November 28, 2011 .
  26. ↑ Decision 11: Cantons. Vaud: Council of States. In: Decision11.sf.tv. Swiss television, accessed on November 29, 2011 .
  27. ↑ Decision 11: Cantons. St. Gallen: Council of States. In: Decision11.sf.tv. Swiss television, accessed on November 28, 2011 .
  28. ↑ Decision 11: Cantons. Zurich: Council of States. In: Decision11.sf.tv. Swiss television, accessed on November 28, 2011 .
  29. ↑ Defeats for the SVP heavyweights. In: NZZ Online. November 27, 2011, accessed November 27, 2011 .
  30. ↑ The SVP relies on Zuppiger and Rime. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . December 1, 2011.
  31. ↑ Urs Paul Engeler : Zuppiger's original sin. In: Die Weltwoche . December 8, 2011.
  32. ↑ Zuppiger's body in the cellar. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. December 7, 2011.
  33. ↑ Zuppiger: “That belongs to a campaign”. In: Swiss television . November 7, 2011.
  34. ^ Hubert Mooser, Matthias Chapman: Zuppiger out of the race - SVP top defends itself. In: Tages-Anzeiger . December 9, 2011.
  35. ↑ Hansjörg Walter should fix it for the SVP. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. December 8, 2011.
  36. ^ Désirée Pomper: SVP did not want a second Federal Council. In: 20 minutes online. December 15, 2011, accessed December 15, 2011 .
  37. ↑ Urs Bloch: The SVP fails with its attack. In: NZZ Online. December 14, 2011, accessed December 15, 2011 .
  38. ↑ Jochen Leffers: Zurich professors counter anti-German campaign. In: Spiegel Online . December 30, 2009.
  39. ↑ BGE 129 I 232. Retrieved on August 7, 2017 .
  40. ↑ Not a “special case of naturalization”. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. June 1, 2008.
  41. ↑ CO2 reduction without new taxes and duties. ( Memento of October 31, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) SVP position paper, 2001.
  42. ↑ a b c d Communiqué ( Memento of December 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) of the SVP, February 24, 2009. See also Tages-Anzeiger : Blocher without climate problems. June 22, 2007.
  43. ↑ National Council takes a close look at the climate initiative. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. March 17, 2010.
  44. ↑ Another SVP initiative. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. July 12, 2011.
  45. ↑ Hans Fahrländer: Not worthy to shine Mr. Blocher's shoes. In: Aargauer Zeitung . December 16, 2011, accessed December 16, 2011 .
  46. ↑ Kriesi et al., 2005.
  47. ^ Jean-Michel Berthoud: Controversy about political culture. In: swissinfo.ch . May 21, 2007 (with illustration of «knife-piercing advertisement»).
  48. ^ Schengen - a Trojan horse ( Memento from February 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: SVP website.
  49. ↑ Michael Soukup: Black sheep, brown ideas. In: Spiegel Online . October 2, 2007.
  50. ^ Christof Moser: Election campaign in Switzerland. Blocher's racist goat. In: Spiegel Online. October 16, 2007.
  51. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: election barometer.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) In: gfs.bern .@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.gfsbern.ch @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.gfsbern.ch
  52. ↑ Party financing: SVP money machine . Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  53. ^ Federal Statistical Office: Cantonal parliamentary elections: party strengths with allocation of mixed lists to the parties
  54. ↑ General renewal elections for the bodies of SVP Switzerland. SVP, March 6, 2018.
  55. ↑ Thomas Aeschi is the new parliamentary group president of the SVP. SVP, November 17, 2017 (press release).
  56. ↑ The underrated. In: SonntagsBlick . March 22, 1998.
  57. ↑ a b c Swiss People's Party (SVP). Année politique suisse , University of Bern (PDF; 180 kB).
  58. ↑ View council member. Federal Assembly website, accessed on August 7, 2017 .
  59. ↑ Yves Bichsel resigns after only five months: Immediate resignation of the SVP General Secretary. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. July 29, 2008. Retrieved August 7, 2017 .
  60. ↑ a b Martin Baltisser is again SVP General Secretary. In: Aargauer Zeitung . April 2, 2009, accessed September 23, 2018 .
  61. ↑ Board of Directors. Sifa website.