BERN: The right-wing populist Swiss People’s Party, which campaigned against mass migration and “woke madness”, com­­fortably topped Switzerland’s general election on Sunday, according to projections after the polls closed.

The SVP took 29 per cent of the vote in elections to the lower house of parliament, improving its vote share by more than three percentage points, predicted market research group GFS Bern, which conducted the main polling throughout the election campaign.

Polling stations closed at noon, the vast majority of Swiss voters having posted in their ballots over the past four weeks.

The SVP came well ahead of the left-wing Social Democrats on 17pc, while the centre-right party The Centre, and the right-wing party called FDP. The Liberals, were both on course to finish on around 15pc — with all three chasing parties largely flatlining.

Meanwhile the Greens could not replicate their dramatic gains at the last election in 2019 and slid back four percentage points to finish fifth on nine per cent, according to the projection.

“It was too late to send it by post but given that it’s important, I told myself I would still come today,” voter Melanie Salamin said at a polling station in the capital Bern.

“It’s our chance and then we can’t complain, we mustn’t wail: we are asked for our opinion and so we give it.” The wealthy European country of 8.8 million people voted for all 200 seats in the National Council lower house of parliament and all 46 in the Council of States upper chamber. GFS Bern was expected to release a seat projection at around 6pm.

SVP riding high

The SVP’s election campaign focused on its favourite theme: the fight against “mass immigration” and the prospect of the Swiss population reaching 10 million.

Its “New normal?” social media adverts, spotlighting criminal cases perpetrated by foreigners, plunged into a world of bloodied knives, hooded criminals, fists, bruised faces and frightened women. It also launched a war on “cancel culture” and what it calls “gender terror and woke madness”.

“The situation in Switzerland is serious: we have mass immigration, we have big problems with people seeking asylum. The security situation is no longer the same as before,” Thomas Aeschi, head of the SVP parliamentary group, said. “There are many people in Switzer­land who fear the situation will get worse.”

The SVP — which is strongly anti-EU — fiercely defends Switzerland’s long-standing military neutrality and feels Bern pushed the principle too far by matching EU sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2023