From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Swiss People's Party
Party Name in German	Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP)
Party Name in French	Union Démocratique du Centre (UDC)
Party Name in Italian	Unione Democratica di Centro (UDC)
Party Name in Romansh	Partida Populara Svizra (PPS)
President	Ueli Maurer (chair)
Members of the Swiss Federal Council	Samuel Schmid and Christoph Blocher (until 31th December 2007) as from 2008: Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Founded	Merger of Agrarian Party and the Democratic Party
Headquarters	Brückfeldstrasse 18 CH-3001 Berne
Political Ideology	Conservatism, Populism, Economic liberalism, Agrarian, Isolationism
European Affiliation
International Affiliation
Colours	Dark Green
Website	www.svp.ch
See also:	Politics & Government Swiss Federal Council Federal Chancellor Federal Assembly Council of States (members) National Council (members) Political parties Elections (2003 - 2007) Cantons - Municipalities Voting

The Swiss People's Party (SVP) also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (UDC) is a political party in Switzerland.

Originally a centrist farmers' party, it embraced right-wing populism from the 1980s onwards under the unofficial leadership of Christoph Blocher, and in the 1990s to 2000s more than doubled its popular vote to 29%.

The SVP has been participating in the governing coalition since 1929, gaining a second seat in the Federal Council in 2003, currently held by Samuel Schmid and Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (for the term 2008-2011).

In both the 2003 and 2007 general elections, the SVP emerged as the strongest party, currently holding 62 of 200 seats in the Swiss National Council. The party chair is held by Ueli Maurer.

The Farmers, Artisans, and Citizens' Party (BGB) was founded in 1918 in Berne, and entered the Federal Council in 1929 with Rudolf Minger. The Democratic Party (DP) was founded in 1942. The two parties were merged into the Swiss People's Party (SVP) in 1971.

The SVP is traditionally strongest in German-speaking areas of Switzerland, but since the 2000s has gained significant support also in the French-speaking part. As of 2007, the party is strongest in Thurgau and Schwyz (both over 40%), and weakest in Fribourg, Valais and Ticino.[1]

Further information: Right-wing populism

One version of the 2007 poster.

In May, 2007, SVP members, along with the Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland launched an initiative to amend the Swiss Federal Constitution to ban the construction of minarets. They claim that they do not oppose Muslims but consider the construction of minarets went against state secularism.^[1] Ulrich Schlüer, member of the SVP and head of the initiative, lost his mandate in parliament in the 2007 federal election in spite of an overall gain of his party's popular support.

On 1 August 2007, the SVP launched a direct mail, print and outdoor advertising campaign at a national level to gather signatures supporting the "Federal Popular Initiative for the Deportation of Criminal Foreigners". An illustration was used in which three white sheep roaming on a Swiss-flag delimited area kick out a black sheep. The caption reads: "Bringing safety". In Geneva, the city council banned the outdoor campaign, and most of the outdoor posters already placed were destroyed. Thousands of the direct mail brochures with prepaid return postage were sent back without a signature to cause increased expenses to the campaign organizers.

The SVP was subsequently accused of promoting a deportation scheme mirroring a law operated by Nazi Germany. ^[2]

Popular vote, 1919-2003. The SVP (until 1971 BGB, in dark green) in 1999 reduced to insignificance the far-right Swiss Democrats and Freedom Party, which had reached their apex in 1991.

From the 1930s to the 1980s, the party had constantly held of the order of 10%-15% of the national vote, traditionally representing the interest of Swiss farmers.

Over the 1990s, the SVP changed its course radically towards a combination of nationalist populism and neo-liberalism, and has greatly increased its voter support, at the expense of both the far-right fringe and the major parties of the centre, gaining of the order of 5% on each. Popular vote more than doubled from 12% in 1991 to 29% in 2007, at the same time resulting in a polarisation on the left, strengthening the Swiss Green Party in particular.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2003 elections, its ascendancy to the strongest party in the parliament led it to demand an additional seat on the Federal Council at the expense of the Christian Democrats (now the weakest of the parties in the governing coalition) and threatened to go into opposition if it did not get it. Finally, Christoph Blocher was elected to the council, replacing Ruth Metzler-Arnold.

In 2003, the party held 55 out of the 200 seats in the Swiss National Council (the lower chamber of the Swiss parliament), 8 out of the 46 seats in the upper chamber, and 2 out of the 7 seats on the Swiss Federal Council (the collective executive body). By 2005, it held 23.3% of the seats in the Swiss Cantonal parliaments but only occupied 15.8% of the positions within the Swiss Cantonal governments (data from the "BADAC" index, weighted with the population and number of seats). An explanation for this gap may be that many members of the cantonal party sections are young and therefore under-represented in the corpus of the more experienced personnel generally included within governments.

With the further rise in support from 27% in 2003 to 29% in the 2007 election (62 out of the 200 seats)^[3], the party matched the historic high-water mark of the Free Democratic Party in 1919. Also in the 2007 elections, the far-right nationalist Swiss Democrats lost their last seat in parliament, their electorate having been almost fully absorbed into the ranks of the SVP.

"Political Map of Switzerland" "Hermann, M. und Leuthold, H. (2003): Die politische Landkarte des Nationalrats 1999-2003. In: Tages-Anzeiger, 11. Oktober, 2003, Zürich."

• AUNS

• svp.ch (homepage) in German and French
• Website containing games supporting SVP ideology (in German and French)
• "Political Map of Switzerland" "Hermann, M. und Leuthold, H. (2003): Die politische Landkarte des Nationalrats 1999-2003. In: Tages-Anzeiger, 11. Oktober, 2003, Zürich."
• svp-politik.ch (critical website) in German

v • d • e Political parties in Switzerland
Major parties	SVP/UDC/PPS - SPS/PSS - FDP/PRD/PLR/PLD - CVP/PDC/PPD/PCD
Minor parties	CSP/PCS - EVP/PEV - FPS/PSL - GPS/PES - LPS/PLS/PLC - SD/DS - Lega - EDU/UDF - PdA/PST-POP/PC - AL - Sol
Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Switzerland