Swiss People's Party

Swiss People's Party
Logo
German name	Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP)
French name	Union Démocratique du Centre (UDC)
Italian name	Unione Democratica di Centro (UDC)
Romansh name	Partida Populara Svizra (PPS)
President	Toni Brunner (chair)
Members of the Federal Council	Ueli Maurer
Founded	Merger of Agrarian Party and the Democratic Party
Headquarters	Brückfeldstrasse 18 CH-3001 Berne
Ideology	Conservatism, National conservatism
Colours	Dark Green
Website
www.svp.ch
Politics of Switzerland Political parties Elections Swiss Federal Council Federal Chancellor Federal Assembly Council of States (members) National Council (members) Voting

The Swiss People's Party (SVP) also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (UDC) is a right-wing political party in Switzerland.

The Swiss People's Party is the product of a 1971 merger of the Bauern-, Gewerbe- und Bürgerpartei (founded 1917) and the Swiss Democratic Party (since 1942). From 1980 onwards, Christoph Blocher represented the party in the canton of Zurich, and from 1991 to 2007 it more than doubled its popular vote to 29%. The party during this period came to be extremely focussed on Blocher as a leader figure, culminating in Blocher's term as a Federal Councillor 2004 to 2007. Following Blocher's non-reelection in 2007, the party has gone through a series of upheavals, notably resulting in the split of the moderate faction within the party off the mainstream, forming the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland (BDP). As of February 2009, it is estimated that the SVP retains ca. 23% of the popular vote, while the BDP holds about 4%.

History

Early history

It traces its roots to 1917, with the formation of a Farmers' Party in Berne. Similar parties followed in other cantons. These parties formed a loose federation that by 1929 was strong enough to get one of its leaders, Rudolf Minger, elected to the Federal Council. It has had a seat on the Federal Council since then. The party formally organised in 1936 as the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents (German: Bauern-, Gewerbe- und Bürgerpartei [BGB]; French: Parti des Paysans, Artisans et Indépendants [PAI]). In 1971, it merged with the Democratic Parties of Glarus and Grisons (with roots dating to 1942) to become the SVP.

Rise of the "Zürich wing" and political success

The rise of the SVP from a comparatively modest force representing farmers and small businesses to the strongest party in Switzerland took place during the four legislatures of 1991 to 2007. In this period, the party's "Zürich wing", led by a small group of party leaders of the Zürich cantonal branch, i.e. the circle surrounding Christoph Blocher (including Ueli Maurer, Christoph Mörgeli and others) introduced a new style of constant aggression against party's political opponents, previously unknown levels of populism and belligerence, paired with a move away from the popular base of farmers towards urban right-wing, neoliberalism together with constant attacks on foreign residents and propaganda of Überfremdung. This drew many protest votes, and the party's popular ballot rose from 12% in 1991 to 29% in 2007, mostly draining support from the parties at the far right fringe, and from the right wing of the Free Democratic Party.

The SVP is traditionally strongest in German-speaking areas of Switzerland, but since the 2000s has gained significant support also in the French-speaking part. As of 2007, the party is strongest in Thurgau and Schwyz (both over 40%), and weakest in Fribourg, Valais and Ticino.

2007 elections and party split

The Swiss system of government is based on a gentlemen's agreement called the magic formula, whereby seats in the 7-member Federal Council are assigned according to each major party's share of the latest general election. The SVP had been participating in this governing coalition since 1929, and owing to the remarkable increase in its popularity, had gained a second ministerial position in the Federal Council in 2003. This seat was taken by Christoph Blocher himself, the man generally credited with the party's electoral success. The November 2007 elections confirmed the SVP as the strongest party in Switzerland; a controversial and polarizing campaign, calling on voters explicitly to strengthen Blocher against alleged attempts to oust him from government, led to the SVP winning the largest share of the national vote of any party since 1919, gaining 62 of the 200 seats in the Parliament.

Exploiting the division in the SVP between the Blocher-led right and the more moderate centrists of the party, anti-Blocher MPs from other parties nominated Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf a moderate SVP parliamentarian to contest the seat in government that Blocher fully expected to reassume. Mrs Widmer-Schlumpf was duly elected, to serve as a second SVP minister besides her equally moderate colleague, Samuel Schmid. It was only the fourth time in history than an incumbent government member was not reelected.

Outraged at what they saw as virtual exclusion from the Federal Council despite having won the largest share of the popular vote, the SVP parliamentary party voted 60-to-2 to exclude Schmid and Widmer-Schlumpf from the parliamentary group, and to act henceforth as an opposition party within Parliament. However, Schmid and Widmer-Schlumpf then were still members of the SVP (although excluded from the meetings of the parliamentary group). Some SVP politicians called for Schmid's and Widmer-Schlumpf's exclusion from the party, yet it was not clear how this could be done. In the Swiss system, individuals are members of their respective cantonal party which in turn is a member of the national party. Exclusion would have to be carried out by the cantonal party, which Schmid's and Widmer-Schlumpfs parties in Bern and Graubünden refused to do.

On 1 June 2008, the national party decided to expel its Graubünden section on account of its continued support for Widmer-Schlumpf. The delegates of the SVP Graubünden decided on 16 June 2008 to form the first cantonal section of the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland, founded at the national level on 1 November 2008.

Ideology

Further information: Right-wing politics

One version of the 2007 poster.

Under Christoph Blocher's leadership, the party has moved from more centrist, conservative positions to right-wing populist spectrum. The party that used to represent farmers, artisans and other middle classes, according to some authors now resembles a national-conservative protest party. Various commentators have labelled the party's present stance as right-wing populist, nationalist anti-immigrant.

In May, 2007, SVP members, along with the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland launched an initiative to amend the Swiss Federal Constitution to ban the construction of minarets. They claim that they do not oppose Muslims but considered the construction of minarets to be against state secularism. Ulrich Schlüer, member of the SVP and head of the initiative, lost his mandate in parliament in the 2007 federal election in spite of an overall gain of his party's popular support.

On 1 August 2007, the SVP launched a direct mail, print and outdoor advertising campaign at a national level to gather signatures supporting the "Federal Popular Initiative for the Deportation of Criminal Foreigners". An illustration was used in which three white sheep roaming on a Swiss-flag delimited area kick out a black sheep. The caption reads: "to create security". In Geneva, the city council banned the outdoor campaign, and most of the outdoor posters already placed were destroyed. Thousands of the direct mail brochures with prepaid return postage were sent back without a signature to cause increased expenses to the campaign organizers.

The Swiss people's party is strongly opposing Swiss entry into the European Union

Popular support

Popular vote, 1919-2003. The SVP (until 1971 BGB, in dark green) in 1999 reduced to insignificance the right-wing Swiss Democrats and Freedom Party, which had reached their apex in 1991.

Before the merger in 1971, the two parties combined garnered 10%-15% of the national vote, traditionally representing the interests of Swiss farmers.

After 1971, the SVP changed its course towards economic liberalism, and has greatly increased its popular support, at the expense of both the far-right fringe and the major parties of the centre, taking away 5% of each. The popular vote more than doubled from 12% in 1991 to 29% in 2007, at the same time resulting in a polarisation on the left, strengthening the Swiss Green Party.

In the 2003 elections, its ascendancy to the strongest party in the parliament led it to demand an additional seat on the Federal Council at the expense of the Christian Democrats (now the weakest of the parties in the governing coalition) and threatened to go into opposition if it did not get it. Finally, Christoph Blocher was elected to the council, replacing Ruth Metzler-Arnold.

In 2003, the party held 55 out of the 200 seats in the Swiss National Council (the lower chamber of the Swiss parliament), 8 out of the 46 seats in the upper chamber, and 2 out of the 7 seats on the Swiss Federal Council (the collective executive body). By 2005, it held 23.3% of the seats in the Swiss Cantonal parliaments but only occupied 15.8% of the positions within the Swiss Cantonal governments (data from the "BADAC" index, weighted with the population and number of seats). An explanation for this gap may be that many members of the cantonal party sections are young and therefore under-represented in the corpus of the more experienced personnel generally included within governments.

With the further rise in support from 27% in 2003 to 29% in the 2007 election (62 out of the 200 seats), the party matched the historic high-water mark of the Free Democratic Party in 1919. Also in the 2007 elections, the right-wing Swiss Democrats lost their last seat in parliament, their electorate having been almost fully absorbed into the ranks of the SVP.

As of February 2009, it is estimated that the SVP retains 22.8% of the popular vote, while the BDP holds about 4%. Basis of this poll was a representative sample of 1231 citizens queried in the period of 20 January to 10 February.

See also

• AUNS
• Swiss Federal Council election, 2007
• Freedom Party of Austria

External links

• svp.ch in German and French
• udc-ticino.ch in Italian
• Website containing games supporting SVP ideology (in German and French)
• "Political Map of Switzerland" "Hermann, M. und Leuthold, H. (2003): Die politische Landkarte des Nationalrats 1999-2003. In: Tages-Anzeiger, 11. Oktober, 2003, Zürich."