- Title: Greens surge in Swiss election as climate change worries come to the fore
- Date: 20th October 2019
- Summary: PROVISIONAL RESULTS DISPLAYED ON LAPTOP SCREEN
- Embargoed: 3rd November 2019 18:17
- Keywords: Swiss election elections Switzerland voting results Swiss election results
- Location: BERN, SWITZERLAND
- City: BERN, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA002B1WIZIF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Support for the Greens surged in Switzerland's election on Sunday (October 20), moving politics to the left and putting environmentalists in the mix for a seat in the broad coalition that has governed the country for decades.
The Green party president, along with candidates and supporters, burst into applause and cheers at the party's headquarters in the Swiss capital of Bern, as they learned the Federal Elections' early results showing gains higher than expected.
The far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) remained in first place, according to projections, but like other big parties, it lost ground as environmentalist parties seized on voters' concerns about climate change to shake up the political establishment.
Switzerland is especially vulnerable to climate change as temperatures in the country are rising twice as quickly as the global average.
The SVP, which won a record number of seats in 2015 amid Europe's refugee crisis, slipped 3.6 points to 25.8% while the Greens' share surged 5.9 points to 13.0% of the vote for the lower house, according to a gfs.bern projection for broadcaster SRF.
The smaller, more centrist Green Liberal Party (GLP) advanced to 7.9%, bringing the two parties' combined strength to nearly 21%, should they overcome policy differences and decide to join forces.
Together they gained 26 seats in the 200-seat lower house, potentially putting them in line to take one of the seats in the seven-seat cabinet, the Federal Council.
Changing just one member of the cabinet would be a political sensation. The Greens have never had a seat in the federal government.
Cabinet seats have been divvied up among the SVP, SP, FDP and CVP in nearly the same way since 1959.
(Production: Marina Depetris, Louisa Naks) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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