Swiss Review 6/2019

Swiss Review / November 2019 / No.6 6 Focus MARC LETTAU Stability and balance are such strong influences in Swiss political life that national elections rarely produce tectonic shifts. Yet political experts have had to resort to employing superlatives in the aftermath of the 2019 elections, as they unanimously cite a change of “historic proportions”. What happened? Essentially, the electorate opted for environmental parties in greater numbers than ever before. The Swiss Green Party (the Greens) gained 17 seats in the National Council and nowhas 28 National Councillors. No party has made such a leap forward since 1919, with the Greens now one of the four strongest parties in terms of voting share (Percentage share of the votes: see diagram). This result is notable for how consistent it is across the country, regardless of the linguistic divide. TheGreens even made strong gains in Ticino. They also outdid the opinion polls by a considerable margin. National Councillor and Green fraction leader Balthasar Glättli (canton of Zurich) reacted to the spectacular result almost indisbelief: “I never expected this in my wildest dreams.” The gains of the cen- trist Green Liberal Party (the Green Liberals), who ended upwithmore than twice asmany seats as previously, made for a green win-win. With a combined total of 44 seats in the National Council, the Greens and the Green Liberals nowwield considerable clout on environmental issues. The ongoing climate debate was certainly a driving factor be- hind the power shift. Forget elections to the National Coun- cil and the Council of States – “climate elections” was in- stead the term on everyone’s lips. Parliament is now greener than the results would suggest Indeed, the success of the two green parties at the ballot box is only part of the story, because the “green wave” had already begun rolling in before the elections. The writing was on the wall from the outset. Take the Liberals (FDP), whose stance on a number of important environmental is- sues suddenly turned greener towards the end of the elec- tion campaign. For example, they announced in autumn that they were in favour of introducing an environmental tax on plane tickets, whereas previously they had tried to scupper this green levy. The party lost four National Coun- cil seats, yet the outcome might have been worse without Switzerland has been hit by a green wave The green parties made unprecedented gains in the national elections. The new parliament will comprise far more women, and its make-up will be slightly younger and more left-leaning. Overall, the shift is dramatic. Voters from the “Fifth Switzerland” helped to drive this result. 4 29 53 25 3 3 16 28 39 6 65 33 7 28 7 11 43 SP 16.8% Grüne 13.2% GLP 7.8% CVP 11.4% FDP 15.1% EVP 2.1% BDP 2.4% SVP 25.6% more 3.4% SP 18.8% Grüne 7.1% GLP 4.6% CVP 11.6% FDP 16.4% BDP 4.1% SVP 29.4% more 8.0% 2019 2015 The new balance of power in the National Council – this chart shows the number of seats as well as the percentage share of the vote for each party. The smaller semi-circle shows the results of the 2015 elections. “Other” in 2019 includes the Lega dei Ticinesi (1 seat), the PdAS (2 seats) and the EDU (1 seat).