The rightwing populist Swiss People’s party (SVP) was set to further strengthen its position as the largest political force in parliament, an early projection suggested, as voters appeared to back the party’s hardline stance against mass migration and what it called “woke madness”.
The SVP was on track to receive 29% of the vote, an increase of nearly 3.5 percentage points over its 2019 results, pollsters GFS Bern predicted, with more than half of the results in.
“We have received a very clear mandate from the Swiss population to put on the table issues which matter to them, such as illegal immigration,” SVP president Marco Chiesa told national broadcaster RTS.
The Greens, who in 2019 made historic gains, were expected to see their support sink to about 9%, down from 13.2%.
Lisa Mazzone, a Green lawmaker seeking re-election, said the poll results showed “a context of fear, and clearly when we are afraid, we forget hope”.
GFS Bern, which conducted the main polling throughout the federal election campaign, said it expected the leftwing Social Democrats to capture 18% of the votes while centre-right party The Centre and centrist party FDP.The Liberals were expected to capture about 15% each. Final results are expected early Monday.
The early estimates suggest that despite Switzerland’s high proportion of foreign residents and its status as one of the world’s richest countries, SVP’s stark warnings against “mass immigration” had resonated with Swiss nationals.
Among the party’s proposals was a bid to cap the country’s population, now at 8.8 million, to 10 million until 2050, citing concerns over the protection of nature and overstretched infrastructure.
The attacks on migration have long been a staple for the SVP, which for two decades has ranked as the largest faction in parliament. This time around, the Federal Commission Against Racism party accused the SVP of running a “xenophobic” campaign following social media adverts that sought to stoke fears about migrants.
The posts showed bloodied knives, hooded criminals, bruised faces and frightened women, accompanied by the question of whether this could be the “new normal”.
SVP’s campaign also sought to mine the culture wars, with vows to tackle “cancel culture” and combat what it described as “woke madness”.
The approach was captured by the SVP youth wing in a recent social media post. “Drag queens, antifas and climate activists are all going to vote!,” it wrote earlier this month. “At the polls, they could ruin Switzerland and our society. We won’t let them!”
About a quarter of Switzerland’s residents hail from outside the country, with nationals from Italy, Germany, Portugal and France ranking among the largest migrant communities. Only Swiss nationals, however, can vote in federal elections.
The SVP – which is strongly anti-EU – also called for Switzerland to strengthen its commitment to neutrality, in line with its view that the country went too far in matching the EU’s sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Switzerland is not a member of the EU.
Thomas Aeschi, head of the SVP parliamentary group, told the AFP news agency that the SVP “wants good relations with the European Union but what we don’t want is an agreement where Switzerland must do what the EU says”.
Analysts predicted that the result would not lead to a significant shift in Switzerland’s government, known as the Federal Council, as the seven cabinet positions are divided among the four largest parties. The newly elected parliamentarians will choose the seven members of the government in mid-December.
Reto Foellmi, an economics professor at the University of St Gallen, said that the impact of Sunday’s election would probably instead be felt in the tone and focus of the country’s political debate.
“On climate change, the government and the parliament will take the foot off the gas … and with migration the tone will get harder,” he said earlier this week.
The projected strong result for the SVP suggested that concerns over immigration may have trumped fears about the looming climate crisis in a country where glaciers are retreating at an exceptional rate.
“Four years ago, people were a bit more idealistic and progressive, which explained why the Greens did well, but now people are more concerned about security and are more conservative again,” Michael Hermann, a political analyst at pollsters Sotomo, told Reuters.
“The SVP has done well because it has raised fears about ‘wokeness’ and also focused on migration again,” said Hermann.
It appears likely that the Swiss election will add to the far-right gains being seen across Europe. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, hails from a party with neofascist roots, while the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party recently won its first district council election. In Austria, the anti-immigrant Freedom party is topping polls ahead of next year’s election.
In Finland, the far right is part of the new coalition government while, in Sweden, it is propping up the government in exchange for key policy concessions.
Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
