Poll: right-wing People’s Party, and polarisation, growing ahead of 2027 elections

Marcel Dettling, the president of the People’s Party, which currently enjoys the backing of some 30% of voters. Keystone / Urs Flueeler

A year ahead of Swiss federal elections, pole parties from the right and left are gaining ground while centre-right parties lose out, a new poll finds.

The Sotomo institute’s election barometer, carried out on behalf of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (Swissinfo’s parent company), took the pulse of voters’ opinions and priorities just over a year ahead of parliamentary elections set for October 24, 2027.

The big takeaway: polarisation is growing as centre-right parties lose ground. If elections were held today, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party would be the big winner with 29.9% of the vote – a score that would surpass its own record of 29.4% set in 2015.

And in terms of progression since the last elections in October 2023, the People’s Party has also recorded the biggest jump, strengthening its electoral share by two percentage points.

The left-wing Social Democrats and Greens also currently look to be making slight gains which would boost the left’s combined strength by 1.5 percentage points in total. The increase is mainly down to the Social Democrats, currently backed by 19.3% of voters (up one percentage point since 2023); this would be the party’s best result since 2007, Sotomo notes.

Struggles for centre-right

The Centre Party, which stands at 12.6% of voting intentions, and the Radical-Liberal Party, at 13.3%, continue to shed electoral support. The two parties currently look set to lose 1.5 and one percentage point respectively compared to 2023.

Compared to a similar poll in 2025, the Radical-Liberal Party has in fact managed to gain a place and move slightly ahead of the Centre. However, its 13.3% score would still be its worst result in its entire history of House of Representatives elections, Sotomo notes.

And taken together, the Radical-Liberals and the Centre – the two traditionally dominant conservative parties – currently come to a total of 26%, an electoral share which is four percentage points lower than that of the Swiss People’s Party alone.

Climate change back on the agenda

The survey also indicates that the shake-up of support for political parties only partially reflects the population’s major concerns.

Migration, a traditional policy priority of the Swiss People’s Party, is notably moving down the list of the population’s concerns. The two political challenges currently considered most urgent by voters surveyed are the cost of health insurance premiums (39%) and climate change (36%).

The latter, “which seemed to have gone out of fashion in recent years”, has risen sharply following the heatwave-hit summer of 2026, according to Sotomo director Michael Hermann. The proportion who see it as a major challenge has jumped nine percentage points in a year.

At the same time, climate concerns have not yet translated into electoral support; while the Green Party has progressed only marginally, the centrist Liberal Greens have even dropped.

While not predicting another “green wave” like in 2019, Sotomo nevertheless notes that the current trend for the two ecological parties is “more positive than it seems at first glance” – mainly because both have “at least managed, thanks to environmental ‘branding’, to pull themselves out of the dip they were in”, the research institute writes.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents in the poll think measures taken by politicians to mitigate the consequences of climate change are not sufficient. However, support for additional measures, as well as the perception of the urgency of the situation, varies greatly depending on affiliation – nearly 90% of Green voters consider climate action a priority, compared to just 5% of People’s Party voters. Concern about rising health insurance premiums, on the other hand, cuts across party lines.

Immigration and crime still big issues for the right

Behind the two prominent themes of climate and health insurance, four other issues are all cited by around a quarter of respondents: asylum policy, relations with the European Union (EU), immigration, and housing.

Concern about housing has notably progressed in recent years – from 13% in 2023 to 23% today – as has concern about crime, which has jumped from 10% to 19%. This latter is particularly mentioned by right-wing voters.

On the other hand, immigration has largely declined as a priority, after having been cited as a major challenge by 35% of respondents in 2023. But it is still the top issue for People’s Party voters.

‘Too friendly’ towards the US and Israel?

Given the importance of foreign policy issues during the current legislative term, the poll also asked about citizens’ perceptions of how the Swiss government is faring on the international stage.

Here, the population is most critical of Bern’s attitude to the US, with over 80% believing the Federal Council is too friendly with Washington – a perception which is quite uniform across party affiliations.

Similarly, nearly three-quarters of survey respondents consider the official Swiss attitude towards Israel to be too cordial. This opinion is also seen across most party bases, although less clearly for People’s Party and Radical-Liberal Party supporters.

Russia and the EU are the source of much bigger differences and ideological splits. Overall, just over half of all respondents consider Bern’s attitude towards Moscow to be too friendly: but for People’s Party voters it is less than 30%, for left-leaning voters over 70%. Meanwhile nearly 90% of People’s Party supporters consider the government to be too friendly towards the EU, compared to just 10% of Social Democrat and Green voters.

Guy Parmelin – a “rising star” on the way out

Survey respondents were also asked about their perception of the degree of influence and popularity of each member of the seven-headed federal government. Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter (Radical-Liberal Party) is still clearly on top for influence (63%), ahead of Environment Minister Albert Rösti (People’s Party), at 53%, and his party colleague, Economics Minister Guy Parmelin, at 42% – up from just 17% a year ago.

Parmelin, who currently holds the rotating Swiss presidency, and who is stepping down from the government at the end of this year, also now tops the popularity rankings (more than 60% of respondents like him) ahead of Defence Minister Martin Pfister (50%) and Keller-Sutter (46%).

The barometer – methodology

Data collection for the SBC election barometer was carried out online from September 10-23, 2026. Poll respondents were recruited partly via SBC web portals and partly via Sotomo’s online panel. Responses from 25,092 voters were used, and statistical weighting was used to make the sample conform to sociodemographic characteristics like place of residence, age, gender, education and political characteristics.

The poll’s margin of error is +/- 1.2 percentage points for an observed percentage of 50% with a 95% confidence interval.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg; adapted from French by Domhnall O’Sullivan/rg