The traditional Catholic party removes “Christian” from its name. They hope to stop the loss of votes in an increasingly secularised country.
The logo so far of the Christian People's Party. / CVP-Die Mitte
The Christian People’s Party (CVP) of Switzerland has decided to ditch the Christian label. Their new name is The Centre.
The move comes after suffering a constant loss of votes in the last decades. First founded as the Catholic-Conservative Party of Switzerland in 1912, the party was strong in the 50s, 60s and 70s, but their voter base fell from 21% in 1979 to 11% in 2019.
The change of the name and the new motto (“Freedom, Solidarity, Responsibility”) were approved after an internal debate in which many party members expressed their resistance to remove the Christian identity of the party.
[photo_footer] The new name and logo of the CVP, now rebranded as The Centre. [/photo_footer] The CVP was still the biggest party in several Southern and Central Catholic cantons (the administrative regions of Switzerland). But even there, the public “Christian” identity was making many secularised voters reluctant to vote for them, the party’s leaders think.
In the move to try to recover influence, the party is also merging with the smaller Conservative Democratic Party.
After this rebranding of the CVP, there will only be one party left in the Swiss Parliament that expressly includes the Christian faith in its name - the Evangelical People’s Party.
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