- Title: SWITZERLAND: RIGHT-WING SWISS PEOPLE'S PARTY SET TO WIN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION
- Date: 20th October 2003
- Summary: (W6) GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 19, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SMV PAN INTERIOR OF GENEVA UNIVERSITY HALL, WHERE POLITICIANS AND VOTERS GATHER TO WATCH RESULTS OF SWISS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS; MV PEOPLE COUNTING VOTES; SCU BALLOT PAPER; MV PEOPLE COUNTING VOTES (6 SHOTS) 0.49 2. MV ZOOM OUT PRESIDENT OF SVP (UDC) GENEVA JACQUES PAGAN SPEAKING ON THE PANEL OF A TELEVISED DEBATE ORGANISED BY LOCAL TV; PEOPLE BOOING JACQUES PAGAN (2 SHOTS) 1.09 3. (SOUNDBITE) (French) PRESIDENT OF SVP GENEVA JACQUES PAGAN SAYING "It (The rise of the SVP) is very positive. It was about time. We have been fighting for that since a long time in Geneva. Our success (in Geneva) goes hand to hand with our general success, around Switzerland. We could feel that it was going to happen since a few years and under the presidency of Mr Blocher who imposed a compact vision, shared by a lot of people, that's when everything changed." 1.38 4. MV POLITICIANS AND VOTERS IN GENEVA UNIVERSITY HALL 1.40 5. (SOUNDBITE) (French) ASKED WHAT HE THINKS MOTIVATED PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR THE SVP, PRESIDENT OF SVP GENEVA JACQUES PAGAN SAYING "The independence, the neutrality of our country, its direct democratic system, the role of a government that is more and more invading, the fact that the government manages badly, that the accounts are empty." 1.59 6. LAS PEOPLE AT BALCONIES LOOKING OVER HALL / SWISS FLAG 2.04 (W6) ZURICH, SWITZERLAND (FILE - 1995) (REUTERS) 7. MV/SLV CHRISTOPH BLOCHER, LEADING FIGURE OF THE SVP, SPEAKING AT PODIUM 2.23 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 4th November 2003 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: GENEVA AND ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Reuters ID: LVA60JH49UUSVQOYT462009GA30M
- Story Text: Right-wing Swiss People's Party set to win
parliamentary election in Switzerland.
Amid claims of racism against its anti-immigrant
stance, the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) is set to
increase its lead in parliamentary elections on Sunday
(October 19) and could spark the first serious threat to
the ruling coalition in 44 years.
Garnering support in the French-speaking west with its
isolationist platform, the SVP has also wooed centrist
voters in German-speaking Switzerland with a mix of
conservative economic policy and anti-European Union
campaigning.
Mirroring the rise of Joerg Haiders' Freedom Party in
Austria, the SVP has risen from fourth to first place in
the polls in the last decade and now looks set to reinforce
its claim to a second seat in the four-party coalition
cabinet, established in 1959.
Based on their size at the time, the magic formula
gives the SVP one cabinet seat while the left-wing leading
Social Democrats (SP), the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and
the centre-right Christian Democrats (CVP) hold two seats
each.
The SVP, dominated by industrialist Christoph Blocher,
has since repeatedly called in vain for more cabinet power
at the expense of one of its waning centre-right cabinet
colleagues.
Now the party looks set to increase the pressure
further for a second cabinet seat. However, some observers
say even if the SVP manage to edge out the SP to become the
biggest party in Switzerland, a second ministerial post
after cabinet elections in December is still not assured.
The significance of an SVP advance is also lessened by
the spirit of deal-making and consensus within the cabinet
and the fact under the Swiss system of direct democracy
voters have the final say in referenda on nearly all major
issues.
Whether the SVP gets a second cabinet seat or not,
observers agree that party's rise signals a shift to the
right for the recession-hit nation as more centrist voters
are won over by the party's conservative economic and
immigration policies.
And even if their position in government is not
boosted, the SVP is set to remain a thorn in the cabinet's
side by pushing its anti-European Union stance and tough
asylum proposals.
The SVP led the campaign against a 2001 referendum for
closer European Union ties, reinforcing Switzerland's famed
neutrality and its isolation from the bloc which surrounds
it.
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