Back Schweizerische Volkspartei ALS حزب الشعب السويسري Arabic حزب الشعب السويسرى ARZ İsveçrə Xalq Partiyası Azerbaijani Швейцарская народная партыя Byelorussian Швейцарска народна партия Bulgarian Partit Popular Suís Catalan Švýcarská lidová strana Czech Schweizerische Volkspartei German Ελβετικό Λαϊκό Κόμμα Greek

Swiss People's Party

Swiss People's Party / Democratic Union of the Centre
  • Schweizerische Volkspartei (German)
  • Union démocratique du centre (French)
  • Unione Democratica di Centro (Italian)
  • Partida populara Svizra (Romansh)
AbbreviationSVP
PPS
UDC
PresidentMarcel Dettling
Members in Federal CouncilAlbert Rösti
Guy Parmelin
Founded22 September 1971
Merger of
HeadquartersBrückfeldstrasse 18, 3001 Bern
Youth wingYoung SVP
Membership (2015)90,000[1]
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing[12]
European affiliationNone[note 1]
Colours  Green
SloganSwiss quality, the party of the middle class.
Federal Council
2 / 7
National Council
62 / 200
Council of States
6 / 46
Cantonal executives
27 / 154
Cantonal legislatures
574 / 2,544
Website
svp.ch (in German)

The Swiss People's Party (German: Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP; Romansh: Partida populara Svizra, PPS), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (French: Union démocratique du centre, UDC; Italian: Unione Democratica di Centro, UDC), is a national-conservative[13][14] and right-wing populist[15] political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Marcel Dettling, it is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 62 members of the National Council[16] and 6 of the Council of States.

The SVP originated in 1971 as a merger of the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents (BGB) and the Democratic Party, while the BGB, in turn, had been founded in the context of the emerging local farmers' parties in the late 1910s. The SVP initially did not enjoy any increased support beyond that of the BGB, retaining around 11% of the vote through the 1970s and 1980s. This changed however during the 1990s, when the party underwent deep structural and ideological changes under the influence of Christoph Blocher; the SVP then became the strongest party in Switzerland by the 2000s.[17]

In line with the changes fostered by Blocher, the party started to focus increasingly on issues such as Euroscepticism[18] and opposition to mass immigration.[19] Its vote share of 28.9% in the 2007 federal election was the highest vote ever recorded for a single party in Switzerland[20] until 2015, when it surpassed its own record with 29.4%.[21] Blocher's failure to win re-election as a Federal Councillor led to moderates within the party splitting to form the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP), which later merged with the Christian Democratic People's Party into The Centre. As of 2024, the party is the largest in the National Council with 62 seats. It has six seats in the Council of States.[22]

  1. ^ The Swiss Confederation — A Brief Guide. Federal Chancellery. 2015. p. 18. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  2. ^ Skenderovic 2009, p. 124: "... and prefers to use terms such as 'national-conservative' or 'conservative-right' in defining the SVP. In particular, 'national-conservative' has gained prominence among the definitions used in Swiss research on the SVP.".
  3. ^ a b Geden 2006, p. 95.
  4. ^ [2][3]
  5. ^ Skenderovic 2009, pp. 9, 123–172.
  6. ^ Mazzoleni, Oskar (2007), "The Swiss People's Party and the Foreign and Security Policy Since the 1990s", Europe for the Europeans: The Foreign and Security Policy of the Populist Radical Right, Ashgate, p. 223, ISBN 9780754648512
  7. ^ Switzerland: Selected Issues (EPub). International Monetary Fund. 10 June 2005. pp. 97–. ISBN 978-1-4527-0409-8. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  8. ^ [5][6][7]
  9. ^ Svante Ersson; Jan-Erik Lane (28 December 1998). Politics and Society in Western Europe. SAGE. pp. 108–. ISBN 978-0-7619-5862-8. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  10. ^ Aleks Szczerbiak; Paul Taggart (2008). Opposing Europe?: The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism: Volume 2: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford University Press. pp. 70–. ISBN 978-0-19-925835-2.
  11. ^ [9][10]
  12. ^
  13. ^ Skenderovic 2009, p. 124.
  14. ^ Daniel Kübler; Urs Scheuss; Philippe Rochat (2013). "The Metropolitan Bases of Political Cleavage in Switzerland". In Jefferey M. Sellers; Daniel Kübler; R. Alan Walks; Melanie Walter-Rogg (eds.). The Political Ecology of the Metropolis: Metropolitan Sources of Electoral Behaviour in Eleven Countries. ECPR Press. p. 211. ISBN 978-1-907301-44-5.
  15. ^ Bayer, Lili (19 October 2023). "Switzerland election: 'immigration and energy security' issues boost populist Swiss People's party, candidate says – as it happened". the Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  16. ^ "Election 2015 results in graphics". Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  17. ^ Cormon 2014, p. 46.
  18. ^ Alexandre Afonso. "What does the Swiss immigration vote mean for Britain and the European Union?". Political Studies Association. Archived from the original on 29 March 2016.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Anti-immigration2015 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ "Record poll win for Swiss right". BBC News. 22 October 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference SlideToRight was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ "Die Sitzordnung im Ständerat". www.parlament.ch. Retrieved 5 August 2024.


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