Free Democratic Party Of Switzerland
The Free Democratic Party (German: Freisinnig-Demokratische Partei, French: Parti radical-démocratique, Italian: Partito liberale-radicale svizzero, Romansh: Partida liberaldemocrata svizra) was a classical liberal political party in Switzerland. It was one of the major parties in Switzerland until its merger with the smaller classical liberal Liberal Party, to form FDP.The Liberals on 1 January 2009.
The FDP was formed in 1894 from the Radicals, who had dominated Swiss politics since the 1830s, standing in in opposition to the Catholic conservatives, and who from the creation of the federal state in 1848 until 1891 formed the federal government.
The FDP remained dominant until the introduction of proportional representation in 1919. From 1945 to 1987, it alternated with the Social Democratic Party to be the largest party. In 1959, the party took two seats in the magic formula. The party declined in the 1990s and 2000s (decade), as it was put under pressure by the Swiss People's Party. In response, the party formed closer relations with the smaller Liberal Party, leading to their formal merger in 2009.
Read more about Free Democratic Party Of Switzerland: History, Popular Support, List of Party Presidents
Famous quotes containing the words free, democratic, party and/or switzerland:
“The doctrine that all men are, in any sense, or have been, at any time, free and equal, is an utterly baseless fiction.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“It shone on everyone, whether they had a contract or not. The most democratic thing I’d ever seen, that California sunshine.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“At the moment when a man openly makes known his difference of opinion from a well-known party leader, the whole world thinks that he must be angry with the latter. Sometimes, however, he is just on the point of ceasing to be angry with him. He ventures to put himself on the same plane as his opponent, and is free from the tortures of suppressed envy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed—they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock!”
—Orson Welles (1915–84)