Right-wing success predicted in Swiss elections due to migrants and rising prices

The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) is expected to win the Swiss federal elections. The movement believes its campaign’s emphasis on immigration and the cost of living will increase the party’s leadership.

The populist right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) is expected to make gains as the country votes in federal elections, following an election season focused on the cost of living and immigration, The Guardian writes.

Switzerland’s leading political party is forecast to win 28.1% of the vote in Sunday’s election, up 2.5 percentage points from its previous ranking, according to polls by the Sotomo research institute.

Christian Imark, an SVP member of the Swiss National Council, said he believed the party could increase its share of the vote as it focused on immigration, energy security and energy costs.

The parliamentarian said that he felt a difference during the election campaign compared to the previous elections in 2019. “You’ll feel like it’s a lot better for us,” he said in a telephone interview, noting that “people are coming” to campaign events “and they want to talk to us more than they did four years ago.”

The rising cost of living in traditionally prosperous Switzerland attracted significant attention during the election campaign, particularly when it came to health insurance, The Guardian notes. Fabian Molina, a member of the Swiss National Council from the Social Democratic Party, states: “For middle-class families, rising health insurance prices have become a major problem in their daily budget.”

Polls show the Social Democratic Party will do well with 18.3%. The Center Party (Mitte) expects 14.3%, and the Liberals – 14.1%. The Greens are expected to suffer the biggest losses, winning 9.7% of the vote – a decline of 3.5 percentage points.

Green parties have done well in previous Swiss elections when climate issues were at the forefront of voters’ minds. “Four years ago, climate change was by far the number one issue,” said Pascal Schiarini, dean of the Geneva School of Social Sciences. “This time there is competition between the issues.”

The Greens recognize this challenge. “The cost of living is rising, so unfortunately this has become a major topic for the population,” states Nicolas Walder, member of the National Council and vice-president of the Swiss Greens.

But Green politicians also stress that they still believe Swiss voters care about the climate. Margot Chauderna, another vice-president of the Swiss Green Party and co-chair of the Young Greens of Switzerland, said that “climate is still the main issue” for voters.

“We are the voice of climate in parliament,” she added, noting that at a key moment in the Green campaign, more than 60,000 people recently demonstrated in Bern “to say: ‘Hey, we still care about the environment, we We are still in an emergency situation.”

Line Rennwald, a senior researcher at the Swiss Center for Social Sciences, said she expects this election to be a return to a more traditional distribution of votes.

“This year’s elections are more about a return to normalcy,” she said, adding that the impact on Switzerland’s leadership would be limited. “It is almost certain that these elections will not affect the composition of the government.”

But, she noted, “the share of different parties in parliament matters. It is likely that right-wing parties will increase their number of seats,” Rennwald said, leading to changes “on some specific issues.”