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Nine out of ten of those polled consider the tournament, which is being co-hosted with Austria, the most important event of 2008. Most people are satisfied with preparations. The competition is now showing on the Swiss public’s radar. Two years ago only two-thirds of those polled had heard of Euro 2008, while that figure now…
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Until the 1990s, the People’s Party was the smallest of the parties represented in cabinet, with only 11 per cent of the vote. During the 1990s the party increased its share of the vote to become the most popular party, attracting 22.5 per cent at the 1999 elections. In 2003 its percentage of the vote…
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After the strike the party took a softer line and in 1943 it became the strongest party in parliament, finally gaining a seat in the cabinet. A second seat followed in 1959. In the 1980s the centre-left Social Democrats fell out of favour, but recovered to be the strongest party at the 1995 elections. Since…
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Between 1919 and 1987, its share of the vote was stable at around 20 per cent, but since the end of the 1980s the party has steadily lost voters. In the 1999 elections, it gained only 15.9 per cent of the vote, the worst result of all the governing parties. The party lost even more…
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Up until 1943 the party held the majority in the seven-member cabinet and was the largest party in parliament until 1999. Since 1993, however, the centre-right Radicals have been steadily losing support, taking only 15.6 per cent of the vote in the 2007 elections. It is the third largest group in the House of Representatives…
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From 1917 to 1919 it had one seat in cabinet. Over the past 30 years the party has regularly gained between two and three per cent of the vote in parliamentary elections. It won 1.8 per cent of the vote in the 2007 polls and has four seats in the House of Representatives.
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For many years the party was the protestant opposition to the Catholic conservatives. Since 1971 its share of the votes has been constant at about two per cent. The party lost one of its three seats in the House of Representatives in the 2007 elections.
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It has had some success in Bern and won its first seat in parliament in 1991. Although the party is active in several cantons, it has not been able to build up its strength further. It achieved just 1.3 per cent of the votes in the 2003 and 2007 elections.
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The party was a clear supporter of the Soviet position and gained in popularity after the Second World War. But voters later turned away following Soviet intervention in Hungary in 1956 and heightened tensions during the Cold War. The party has continued its downward slide due to competition from other left-leaning parties. It is now…
