Political Parties and Elections
For other political parties see List of political parties in Switzerland. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Switzerland.Switzerland has a rich party landscape. The five parties represented in the Federal Council are generally called the government parties: Free Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, Christian Democratic Party, Swiss People's Party, and Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland.
As of 2011 only the five government parties were represented in the Council of States. In the National Council the party landscape is more diverse with eight non-government parties having at least one seat.
| Parties | Abbr. | Alignment | Ideology | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swiss People's Party | SVP/UDC | Right-wing | National conservatism | 648,675 | 26.6 | −2.3 | 54 | −8 | |
| Social Democratic Party | SPS/PSS | Left-wing | Social democracy | 457,317 | 18.7 | −0.8 | 46 | +3 | |
| FDP.The Liberals | FDP/PLR | Centre-right | Classical liberalism | 368,951 | 15.1 | −2.5 | 30 | −5 | |
| Christian Democratic People's Party | CVP/PDC | Centre | Christian democracy | 300,544 | 12.3 | −2.2 | 28 | −3 | |
| Green Party | GPS/PES | Left-wing | Green politics | 205,984 | 8.4 | −1.2 | 15 | −5 | |
| Conservative Democratic Party | BDP/PBD | Centre-right | Conservatism / economic liberalism | 132,279 | 5.4 | New | 9 | New | |
| Green Liberal Party | GLP/PVL | Centre | Green liberalism | 131,436 | 5.4 | +4.0 | 12 | +9 | |
| Evangelical People's Party | EVP/PEV | Centre | Christian democracy | 48,789 | 2.0 | −0.4 | 2 | ±0 | |
| Federal Democratic Union | EDU/UDF | Right-wing | Christian right | 31,056 | 1.3 | ±0 | 0 | −1 | |
| Alternative Left (Party of Labour, solidaritéS) | LIN/GAU | Far-left | Socialism / communism | 21,482 | 0.9 | −0.2 | 0 | −1 | |
| Ticino League | LdT | Right-wing | Regionalism / Right-wing populism | 19,657 | 0.8 | +0.3 | 2 | +1 | |
| Geneva Citizens' Movement | MCG | Right-wing | Regionalism / Right-wing populism | 10,714 | 0.4 | +0.3 | 1 | +1 | |
| Christian Social Party | CSP/PCS | Left-wing | Christian left | 6,248 | 0.3 | -0.2 | 1 | ±0 | |
| Other | 54,622 | 2.2 | |||||||
| Total (turnout 48.5%) | 2,442,648 | — | — | 200 | — | ||||
| Source: Swiss Federal Statistical Office (French) | |||||||||
| Parties | Ideology | 2007 | Seats | ± | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC) | Christian democracy | 15 | 13 | -2 | |
| FDP.The Liberals (FDP/PRD) | Classical liberalism | 12 | 11 | -1 | |
| Social Democratic Party (SPS/PSS) | Social democracy | 9 | 11 | +2 | |
| Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC) | National conservatism | 7 | 5 | -2 | |
| Green Party (GPS/PES) | Green politics | 2 | 2 | ±0 | |
| Green Liberal Party (GLP/VL) | Green liberalism | 1 | 2 | +1 | |
| Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD) | Conservatism / Economic liberalism | 0 | 1 | +1 | |
| Independent | Independent | 0 | 1 | +1 | |
| Total | 46 | 46 | |||
| Source: http://www.politik-stat.ch/srw2011CH_de.html | |||||
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Switzerland
Famous quotes containing the words political parties, political, parties and/or elections:
“Politics is, as it were, the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel, and the two political parties are its two opposite halves,—sometimes split into quarters, it may be, which grind on each other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“This will not be disloyalty but will show that as members of a party they are loyal first to the fine things for which the party stands and when it rejects those things or forgets the legitimate objects for which parties exist, then as a party it cannot command the honest loyalty of its members.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)