SWITZERLAND:The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) has performed strongly in the Swiss parliamentary elections at the expense of the other government parties. The Greens were also hailed as election winners, increasing their share of the vote to almost 10 per cent.
According to the first nationwide exit poll, the SVP was on 28.8 per cent, up from 26.7 per cent in the last election. The biggest losers were the centre-left Social Democrats, whose electoral support is expected to fall by four percentage points, taking them to 19 per cent. The party was hardest hit in urban centres, tumbling 8 per cent in Zürich.
The third-largest of the four government parties, the centre-right Radicals, are also feeling the pain with a drop in support, while the Christian Democrats appear to have stabilised their position.
Posts in Switzerland's seven-member cabinet are divided between the four largest parties based on a tradition of consensus. The cabinet will be chosen on December 12th. President of the People's Party, Ueli Maurer, said that his party did not intend to change the way Switzerland has been governed for more than 50 years. "Switzerland can only be ruled by consensus, nothing else is possible," he said.
Green party supporters and candidates waved sunflowers in the air at their post-election party in Zürich, clearly delighted at the upturn in their fortunes. The party's central campaign theme was climate change.
However, global warming and other issues were sidelined in the run- up to the elections as the People's Party managed to showcase their hard-line policies relating to immigrants and crime.
People's Party proposals to deport foreigners who commit violent crimes, robbery or welfare fraud were criticised by other government parties and pre-election debates focused on criticism of the right-wing party's conduct. There were also continued personal attacks in recent months and weeks on the party's billionaire frontman, controversial justice minister Christoph Blocher, originally sparked by Mr Blocher himself when he claimed there was a secret plot to kick him out of cabinet.
Pre-election tensions reached a peak when a People's Party rally in Bern was disrupted by left-wing militants earlier this month.
Political commentators agreed that the scenes of rioting and mayhem in the country's capital helped reinforce the right-wing party's law and order message. The divisive and personality-driven campaign seems to have encouraged more people to vote.
Turnout is estimated to have reached almost 50 per cent, the highest level of participation for 30 years. In the last parliamentary elections in 2003, just 45 per cent of the electorate voted.