The Swiss populist right is the big winner in the legislative elections this Sunday, with 29.2% of the votes, in a context of the European migration crisis and the resurgence of the risk of attacks in Europe, according to the first projections, which also confirm the decline expected from environmentalist parties.
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All the results are not yet known, particularly in the Council of States, the equivalent of the Senate in Switzerland, but for the lower house, it is over. The UDC pockets 61 of the 200 seats. This is unheard of, points out our correspondent in Geneva, Jeremy Lanche. “ It’s a great satisfaction », Reacted the vice-president of the Democratic Union of the Center (UDC), Céline Amaudruz, on the set of Swiss public television RTS.
The party will be able to impose its favorite themes even more: the fight against “mass immigration”, security, rejection of the EU and respect for the strictest neutrality in Switzerland’s relations with the ‘stranger. For this, it will still need to forge alliances, in particular with the liberal right (14.5%) which no longer hesitates to ally itself with the UDC to save the furniture.
During the campaign, the party was accused of flirting with the far right, but the speech of the UDC – leading party since 1999 – continues to seduce population. The UDC had set itself the objective of recovering the approximately 100,000 voters lost four years ago, party president Marco Chiesa told AFP before the elections. The bet seems to have paid off, since the result is close to the 29.4% obtained in 2015, in the midst of the European migration crisis.
Failure of the left block
Opposite, the block on the left is crumbling. The Socialist Party remains the 2nd party in the country with more than 17% of the votes, but its environmentalist allies lose almost all their gains obtained during the green wave of the last elections (9.1% for the Greens and 7.1% for the Green’liberals. It’s a paradox. While climate change was cited as one of the main concerns by voters along with rising health costs and immigration.” It’s a disappointment “, reacted the vice-president of the Greens, Nicolas Walder, emphasizing that “ that’s about two thirds of the green wave » of the 2019 elections which has ebbed. “ I believe that the population has been led towards other priorities “, such as purchasing power and insecurity, he said. “ There are many wars going on and there is a withdrawal of identity “.
On December 13, all parliamentarians will designate the seven members of the Federal Council (government), within which the first four parties share the seven ministerial portfolios. The Greens have little chance of obtaining their first seat there based on the polls.
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(And with AFP)