The conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP) has expanded its plurality in Switzerland’s Parliament in the country’s federal elections on Sunday.
The SVP won 62 seats — an increase of nine seats — in the 200-seat National Council, Switzerland’s lower house. It also increased its share of the popular vote by three points, to 28.6 percent. These gains far exceeded pre-election projections, which saw the SVP winning around 55-57 seats, and are a near-record for the party, which has been Switzerland’s largest since 1999.
Commenting on the results, SVP president Marco Chiesa stated, “I believe the people have given the politicians a clear mandate.” He pledged that his party would oppose “wokeism” and “political correctness,” and instead pursue “more subjects that really concern people: Switzerland with 10 million inhabitants, a secure energy supply, [and] Swiss independence.”
The next-largest party, the leftist Social Democratic Party (SP), won 41 seats (gaining two), while the centrist The Center gained a seat to win 29, and the center-right FDP.The Liberals lost a seat, bringing its total to 28.
Leftist parties performed poorly in the elections. Despite the SP’s modest gains, the Green Party lost five seats, while the Green Liberal Party lost six. Meanwhile, the Marxist parties solidaritéS and Party of Labor each lost their one seat in the National Council — the latter only for the second time ever since 1947.
The SVP will be joined by three smaller conservative parties, which also performed strongly. The Christian-conservative Federal Democratic Union gained a second seat, while the conservative-regionalist Ticino League held steady at one seat. The populist Geneva Citizens’ Movement, which also aligns with the SVP, reentered the National Council with two seats.
Heading into the elections, the SVP vocally campaigned against mass migration and “woke” ideology. It also advocated against removing barriers to transferring weapons to Ukraine, arguing such a move would compromise Switzerland’s historic neutrality. These issues struck a chord with voters, who, as polls indicated, are especially concerned with mass migration into Switzerland. By contrast, hysteria over climate change — which led to leftist gains in the previous elections in 2019 — subsided.
Next month, voters in certain cantons — Switzerland’s member states — will return to the polls to decide 13 remaining seats in the country’s upper house, the 46-seat Council of States. Unlike the National Council, which is elected via proportional representation — with seats being apportioned to the cantons based on population — the Council of States functions similar to the U.S. Senate, which each canton retaining two seats (or one seat for half cantons).
On December 13, Switzerland’s new parliament will elect the seven members of the Federal Council, the country’s collective head of state. The composition of Switzerland’s government is unlikely to change, since for more than six decades the country’s four largest parties have divided up the Council’s seats among themselves.
It remains to be seen what impact Sunday’s elections will have on government policy. Similar to other Western countries, individual freedom, self-government, and national sovereignty are under attack in Switzerland. In recent decades, the country has ceded parts of its sovereignty to the European Union despite not being a member, and the EU continues to pressure the country into becoming a mere satellite state.
Meanwhile, individual freedom in the confederation is eroding. Among other examples, gun policies have become more restrictive, property rights are being overridden in the name of public safety, and Covid-19 provided the government an opportunity to restrict medical freedom. Meanwhile, officials have floated “climate lockdowns” and a crackdown on agriculture in the name of mitigating climate change.
The solution is for the Swiss electorate to relearn and recommit to the principles that made Switzerland great in the first place — Christianity, limited government, self-governance, and national sovereignty — and boldly defend and inform others about those principles. Now, more than ever, is this needed — because tomorrow could be too late.
