People’s Party takes root in the west

Christoph Blocher is pleased with his party's progress in French-speaking cantons Keystone Archive

The right-wing populism of the Swiss People's Party is becoming a national force, as it takes root in French-speaking Switzerland.

Traditionally a German-speaking movement, the People’s Party has made considerable gains in Valais, Geneva and Vaud, giving a crucial foothold in the west of the country.

This weekend, in cantonal elections in Vaud and Fribourg, it will aim to further consolidate its gains.

“We knew our support was growing, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised by our success,” says Gilberte Demont, party coordinator in French-speaking Switzerland.

“This is not just due to general dissatisfaction. People know what they’re voting for,” she explained to swissinfo.

Not a protest vote

Political analysts agree that, although discontent with the ruling political elite was a factor, this was not just a flash-in-the-pan protest vote.

“Many people in Switzerland – the elderly, those on low incomes – feel threatened and they tend to support the People’s Party, because they feel it will protect them,” says Pascal Sciarini, a political scientist at the Graduate Institute of Public Administration in Lausanne.

French-speakers have always been more pro-European and more willing to welcome foreigners than their German-speaking compatriots. But the People’s party has succeeded in tapping into the sizeable francophone minority that does not want Switzerland to join the European Union and the United Nations, the group that wants a tightening of asylum laws.

“You can always find 15 or 20 per cent of the population that supports these kinds of ideas,” Sciarini told swissinfo.

“The party’s potential support in French-speaking areas is not as large as in German-speaking Switzerland, but it’s here to stay,” he adds, saying that this would be a major step in making the People’s Party a national political force.

Second cabinet seat

The party has the second biggest representation in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the federal parliament, a position it feels merits a second seat in the cabinet.

But one reason the other parties have given for not granting it is that the party cannot call itself a truly national movement, given its meagre representation in French-speaking areas.

“Now this argument is losing its relevance,” Sciarini says.

The Swiss People’s Party has its origins in the Bernese Oberland, where it fought for the mountain farmer. In recent years, with the populist businessman Christoph Blocher as its de facto leader, its power base has shifted to Zurich and its policies have become increasingly anti-European and anti-immigrant.

The party has traditionally enjoyed limited support in rural areas of cantons Vaud and Fribourg. But the gains it has made in recent weeks have been in urban areas.

“The newly-created branches in French-speaking cantons look very much like the Blocher stream of the party. These new sections have little to do with the classic Swiss People’s Party,” Sciarini says

“It’s true that some cantonal sections are more right-wing,” Demont acknowledges, “but we don’t follow Christoph Blocher blindly, without analysing what he says.”

Election breakthrough

Having made modest gains in March in Valais and Fribourg, the People’s Party stunned Geneva last month when it picked up 10 seats in the cantonal parliament. That trend was confirmed when it made further breakthroughs in towns like Nyon, Vevey, Lausanne and Montreux in the first round of communal elections in canton Vaud.

What the vote demonstrated was that the party lacks an established structure in western Switzerland. In Nyon and Montreux, for example, the party won more seats than it had candidates.

“Our success has surpassed all our expectations,” says Guy Parmelin, president of the People’s Party in Vaud. He says the party had been setting its sights on the cantonal elections next March.

Gilberte Demont told swissinfo that what has struck a chord with voters is the fact that the party is the only mainstream party opposed to EU membership, the only party that opposed the government’s rescue package for Swissair, and it espouses low taxation.

What role it will now play in local politics is open to question, but the People’s Party will be difficult to ignore: “We’ve been snubbed by the parties of the centre right, but we are unavoidable if they want to maintain their majorities,” Parmelin says.

“Politics in French-speaking Switzerland is a crowded field,” Sciarini says. “We thought there was no room left for another party. We were wrong.”

by Roy Probert