People’s Party wins Switzerland election as Greens make strong gains

Switzerland held elections on Sunday to form the 200-seat National Council, the federal parliament in Bern.  

Despite losing support, the conservative right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) will continue to be the biggest party with 52 seats (-12), followed by the centre-left Social Democrats (SP) with 39 (-4).

The liberal conservative party FDP (28 seats) and the Christian People’s Party CVP (25) also lost seats.

The big surprise was the growth of two green pro-environment groups, the Green Party (28 seats, up from 11) and the Green Liberals (16, up from 7). Both parties earned together around 20% of the vote.

The biggest parties will now have the responsibility to negotiate the 7 members of the Federal Council, the highest executive authority in the country. Decisions in this form of government are made jointly.

The turnout was of 47%, a low participation of the population if compared with the usual turnout in other European countries. Nevertheless, Switzerland is one of the countries with the most direct democracy, with around 4 referendum votes organised every year.

EVANGELICAL PARTIES

Switzerland, a place that was central in the Protestant Reformation, is one of the few European countries that has political parties with a clear evangelical ethos represented in the national parliament.

EVP.

The EVP (Evangelical People’s Party), which combines centre-left and centre-right positions, experienced a light growth and got 2.1% of the vote and three seats, one more than in the previous term. The EVP, which recently celebrated 100 years of existence – had the strongest support in the Cantons of Bern (capital), and Basel and Aargau (both in the north of the country).

Some of the strong points the EVP underlined in its political manifesto are creation care, help for refugees, care for family, human dignity, fight against human trafficking, and religious freedom.

EDU.

Also the right-wing conservative EDU (Federal Democratic Union), 1% of the vote, celebrated their return to the National Council as they won one seat they had lost in the previous term. The best outcome for the EDU was in the Cantons of Bern and Thurgau (North East). The EDU defines itself as pro-family, pro-life, pro-human dignity and Eurosceptic.

Beyond these two explicitly Evangelical parties, all parties have evangelical Christians among their members.