Anti-Immigration Populist Party Rebounds in Switzerland with 9-Seat Gain; Progressives Lose Ground; Swiss Turn to Right at Election as Immigration Fears Weigh

Anti-immigration populist party rebounds in Switzerland with 9-seat gain; progressives lose ground:

Climate change-focused liberal parties also lost seats in the Switzerland election

Switzerland’s national elections over the weekend resulted in a major victory for the Swiss People’s Party, which ran on a hard-line anti-immigration platform as concerns about a growing population have increased in the European country.

Late Sunday’s final tally showed the party, known as SVP, gaining nine seats, bringing it to a 62-seat total in the parliament’s 200-member lower house where no party has an overall majority. At the same time, environmentally minded factions that campaigned heavily on climate change were the biggest losers as the Greens dropped five seats, bringing their total to 23, and the Liberal-Greens lost six seats and dropped to 10 overall.

SVP, which rebounded from a disappointing result in 2019, campaigned on a platform of preventing the country’s population — currently at 8.7 million people — exceeding 10 million.

“We have problems with immigration, illegal immigrants, and problems with the security of energy supply,” said SVP leader Marco Chiesa. “We already have asylum chaos… A population of 10 million people in Switzerland is a topic we really have to solve.”

SVP, which also campaigned vocally against “woke culture,” has promised to promote policies with “less political correctness.” ––>READ MORE HERE

Swiss turn to right at election as immigration fears weigh:

Switzerland looked set to shift to the right in national elections on Sunday, as concerns about immigration trumped fears about climate change and melting glaciers, though the vote is unlikely to change the make-up of the Swiss government.

The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), Switzerland’s biggest political party, increased its share of the vote to 29%, 3.4 percentage points higher than the last election in 2019, according to the final projection by Swiss broadcaster SRF.

The party campaigned on a platform of preventing the country’s population – currently at 8.7 million people – exceeding 10 million.

“We have problems with immigration, illegal immigrants, and problems with the security of energy supply,” said SVP leader Marco Chiesa. “We already have asylum chaos … A population of 10 million people in Switzerland is a topic we really have to solve.”

The projected result means the SVP 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.—>READ MORE HERE

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