© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: General view of the snow-covered mountains of the Bernese Alps, Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau, as seen from Bern, Switzerland, October 28, 2020. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
ZURICH (Reuters) – Switzerland looked set to shift to the right in national elections on Sunday as concerns about immigration outweighed fears about climate change and melting glaciers, although the vote is unlikely to change the composition of the Swiss government.
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), Switzerland’s largest political party, increased its vote share to 29%, 3.4 percentage points more than in the last election in 2019, according to the Swiss broadcaster’s final projection SRF.
The party campaigned on a platform of preventing the country’s population – currently 8.7 million people – from exceeding 10 million.
“We have problems with immigration, illegal immigrants and problems with the security of energy supply,” said UDC leader Marco Chiesa. “We already have chaos regarding asylum… A population of 10 million people in Switzerland is an issue that we really have to solve.”
The projected result means the UDC will increase its number of seats by eight to 61 in the 200-member lower house of parliament, increasing its presence in the chamber where no party has an overall majority.
Rising healthcare costs also seemed to benefit the left-wing Social Democrats (SP). Switzerland’s second largest party was about to increase its vote share by 0.7 percentage points to 17.4%, increasing its representation by one to 40 seats.
By contrast, the Greens were expected to see their vote share fall by 4 percentage points to 9% and lose six seats.
“The result means that it will be more difficult for progressive issues or issues like the environment and sustainability,” said Chloe Jans of pollster GFS Bern. “Politicians will feel less external pressure to push this agenda in the next four years after this result.”
The result is unlikely to change the makeup of Switzerland’s government, the Federal Council, where seven cabinet positions are divided between the four main parties, based on their share of the vote.
“The progressive spirit of four years ago has disappeared. After four years of crisis, with the coronavirus and Ukraine, people are more conservative than in 2019,” said Michael Hermann, political analyst at the polling firm Sotomo.
Still, he did not believe the elections would have a major impact on Swiss politics, since big issues like pensions are still resolved by referendums.
