Are the green parties past their peak?
In the 2023 elections the Greens and the Liberal Greens lost a considerable number of seats. Some experts say that's simply all that's possible in the long term. Is that true?
Climate change was one of the main reasons for the Greens emerging as the big winners in the elections four years ago. And it was also a change of climate, but in a political and social sense, that explains why the green parties lost so many votes this year.
The Green Party saw its voter share drop from 13.2% to 9.8%, while the Liberal Greens fell from 7.8% to 7.6%.
Even though people are still concerned about climate and environmental issues, fewer voted green at the ballot box. Why? The “dialogue” Team has put together a selection of articles from all over Switzerland to show the complexity of reasons behind the Greens’ defeat. For instance, two activists from German-speaking Switzerland explain why they believe the discussion about climate change has lost its mobilising force. In French-speaking Switzerland, the Greens seem to have paid the price for extreme protests, such as people gluing themselves to streets or golf courses which were turned into potato fields. And among the Swiss Abroad, climate is one of the main concerns, but not sufficiently relevant to the election.
Therefore, what do the green parties need to change? The alarmist speeches on climate change are counterproductive, says a Green parliamentarian in one of our articles. Another idea is to rethink green politics in general. Does it necessarily have to be a matter for the left?
These are some points of thought and discussion in the current “dialogue” selection.External link
By the way, our editorial team uses AI to translate both the articles and the multilingual debateExternal link into the four national languages and English. Therefore, you can join the discussion using your national language or English and debate with people from all over Switzerland and with Swiss living abroad.
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