POLICY

Switzerland: the Popular Party won the elections and will be the first force in parliament

The far-right group SVP came in first place with 29%, followed by the Swiss Socialist Party, which achieved 17.4% in an election focused on immigration, climate change and public health.

  • 25/10/2023 • 04:08

The far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) won the federal elections and will be the leading force in Parliament, the final results of elections focused mainly on immigration, climate change, and public health showed this Monday. Two environmental parties, including one that had risen sharply four years ago, were the big losers in last Sunday's election in Switzerland, despite the record melting of the country's glaciers. The strong resurgence of the SVP after having suffered a great setback years ago is another sign of a shift to the right in Europe after electoral victories or advances by far-right parties in countries such as Italy, Sweden or Finland in the last year. The SVP, which proposes greater immigration control, increased its 2019 vote percentage by 3.4 points to 29% and won 62 seats in the National Council - the lower house of Parliament, with 200 members -, nine more than fourth years ago. The results Presided over by Marco Chiesa since 2020, the SVP - also known as UDC, by the acronym of its name in French and Italian, the official languages of Switzerland along with German - is the party with the most votes in Switzerland since 1995. In second place was the Swiss Socialist Party (PS), with 17.4% of the votes, six tenths more than in 2019, so it will add two seats in the National Council to reach 41, the news agency reported. Europe Press. Tied in third place, with 14.6% of the votes each, are the Christian Democrats of the Center Alliance, with 29 seats (one more than in 2019), and the liberals of the Radical Liberal Party (PLR), with 28 (one less than in 2019), respectively, in the Lower House