Swiss Review 1/2019

Swiss Review / January 2019 / No.1 8 “Direct democracy reduces tension” In nine months, elections will be held in Switzerland. Political scientist Michael Hermann on divides, what holds the system together and the state of Swiss democracy. Michael Hermann from Berne is one of Switzer- land’s most prominent political observers. The social geographer and political scientist heads the Sotomo Research Centre in Zurich. Photo: R. Ruis Focus ing with the idea of the Greens having a seat in the Federal Council – at the expense of the CVP. Dull centre, fitter liberals The CVP, the oldest force of the political centre, remains in poor form. The party has been losing voters at the national level for some time now. For the past three years, under a new leadership, it has been trying to emphasise its Chris- tian-conservative roots and lead a debate on values in deal- ingwith Islam. This has not yet ended the downward trend, as suggested by the election barometer and the loss of seats in cantonal parliaments. On top of this, there is competi- tion in the centre, where the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP) and the Green Liberal Party (GLP) compete for votes. However, in cantonal governments and the Council of States, the CVP remains a sizeable party. The FDP is starting the election year in promising form. The trend reversal that began in 2015 has continued: since then, nopartyhaswonmoreparliamentary seats incantonal elections than the liberals. The election barometer also indi- cates that the FDP is gaining ground. According to surveys, the electorate believes it can help resolve important issues such as relations with the EU. The FDP seems to have suc- ceeded in freeing itself fromits image of economic cronyism. For this reason, the party leadership is not happy with exec- utive politicians in French-speaking Switzerland who are suspected of having been paid for favours (see page 31). New saplings In addition to the rooted parties, new cultures are also growing in the Swiss political landscape: spontaneous, ag- ile, digital. Operation Libero has attacked the SVP on all fronts before certain votes. It consists of youngwomen and men who consider themselves liberal and would like Swit- zerland to be open towards the world. In some cases, slug- gish political processes are being accelerated. When the Federal Council wanted to loosen the criteria for arms ex- ports to countries torn by civil wars, somany outraged cit- izens pledged their support for a popular initiative online within two days that the government withdrew its deci- sion. And the first Twitter referendumwas held: three pri- vate individuals launched a collection of signatures against social detectives via the social network. The legislative re- form was quickly put before the people. Referendum strength without party infrastructure and the backing of a well-funded organisation had not previously existed in Switzerland.