Switzerland is more complex

The UDC (Democratic Union of the Centre) took almost 29% of the votes in the Swiss parliamentary elections on Sunday, 21 October. After conducting a campaign focused on such issues as the repatriation of “criminal foreigners” and “insecurity”, the party of populist millionaire Christoph Blocher, Federal Minister of Justice and Public Order, emerged reinforced from these elections. However, Blocher and his party don’t have unlimited powers. The complexity of the Swiss democratic system, with its checks and balances, does not permit the UDC and its powerful mentor to set the agenda or form a government alone. Less than a third of MPs belong to Blocher’s party, and a majority of at least 50%+ 1 is needed to be able to govern in a coalition system! To be sure, the Socialist Party (PS) has lost 9 seats and can only claim 43 MPs (out of 200 in the National Council, the lower chamber of the Federal Parliament, compared with the 62 seats of the UDC (+7). The Greens (the ecologist party placed towards the left of the political spectrum), on the other hand, have picked up an extra 7 seats. On the centre-right, if the Radical-Democratic Party (PRD) is left with only 31 MPs (having lost 5 seats), the Christian-Democratic Party (PDC), which has long been treading water, has managed to win back 3. The PDC has ended up, it too, with 31 seats. In effect, if we consider the three main blocs – left, centre-right, right – we have to draw the conclusion that these elections have brought very few changes in terms of seats. These three blocs each comprise an almost identical number of seats: 63 for the left, 62 for the centre-right (66 if we add the 4 Liberals elected) and 62 for the UDC. The remaining 9 seats are subdivided between one Communist (Labour Party/PDT), two Evangelicals (PEV), one of the Federal Democratic Union (UDF), one Social Christian (PCS), a representative of the League of the Ticino (populist right) and three liberal greens. We are witnessing, on the other hand, and this must be cause for concern, a real “shift to the right” of the Swiss Parliament, to the detriment of the centre-right, which could be defined as “republican”. The moderate right has clearly been surpassed by the populist UDC, a party that won over many electors traditionally of the left and working class, thanks especially to its “anti-foreigner” and “pro-security” campaign. The UDC has also endeared itself to the financial community, especially in Zurich, with its programme of tax breaks for the super-rich. But there is one great drawback: its “anti-Europeanism” and its “isolationism” frighten the many businessmen who work with the European Union. To evaluate the impact of this “radicalisation on the right”, we have to bear in mind that the Swiss people have at their disposal corrective means: the referendum and the popular initiative. Of course, to underline the climate of the times, Federal Minister Blocher presented new restrictive measures for asylum-seekers last Wednesday: deserters and conscientious objectors can no longer automatically obtain refugee status. This is alien to Switzerland’s humanitarian tradition. But it is what the Swiss people wanted by adopting – against the advice of the Churches, charities and humanitarian organizations – new laws on asylum and on foreigners in September 2006. If the weapons of the referendum and the popular initiative can still correct the negative repercussions of those who want to impose the hardline of the UDC, it is indispensable that the Swiss people – in part already contaminated by a xenophobic and populist wave – regain control over their own destiny and choose the way of a genuine “republican front”.