Swiss elections, 2003

Politics of Switzerland

Politics of Switzerland
Political parties in Switzerland
Elections in Switzerland: 2003

Legislative elections in the Swiss Confederation were held on 19 October 2003. Although in Switzerland's peculiar political system, in which all four major parties form a coalition, it's very hard to achieve a change of government, this election produced an upset in the strong showing of the right-wing, anti-European Union and anti-immigration Swiss People's Party. The left wing parties, the Socialists and the Greens, also improved their positions. The losers were the parties of the centre-right, the Christian Democratic People's Party and the Free Democratic Party.

In the aftermath of the elections Ruth Metzler-Arnold, one of the two Christian Democrats in the Federal Council was replaced by Christoph Blocher, the most influential politician in the Swiss People's Party.

Contents
1 The Legislature

1 Parties

1.1 Government parties
1.2 Other parties

2 Official Results
3 External links and references

The Legislature

Switzerland has a bicameral legislature, the Federal Assembly (Assemblée Fédérale / Bundesversammlung / Asamblea Federale / Assemblea Federala).

These elections were to the National Council and for most of the members of the Council of States.

All parties in Switzerland have different names in French, German and Italian, and conduct separate campaigns in the different language areas.

Parties

Government parties

These four parties have formed a continuous coalition government since 1959 with each party allotted a fixed number of cabinet posts (the "magic formula").

Swiss People's Party (right wing-populist)

Social-Democratic Party or Socialist Party (centre-left)

Christian Democratic Party (centre-right)

Radical Democratic Party (centre-right, liberal)

Other parties

Green Lists (under different names in each Canton)

Liberal Party

Evangelical People's Party

Federal Democratic Union

Official Results

This are the votes and seats each party gained for the National Council (compared with the previous results from the 1999 elections). 

Party       Votes (%)                Seats
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               1999   2003   99-03      1999   2003   99-03 
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 SVP/UDC        22.5  26.7   +4.2        44     55    +11 
 SPS/PSS/PS     22.5  23.3   +0.8        51     52     +1
 FDP/PRD/PLR    19.9  17.3   -2.6        43     36     -7 
 CVP/PDC        15.9  14.4   -1.5        35     28     -7 
 Greens          5.0   7.4   +2.4         9     13     +4 
 LPS/PLS         2.3   2.2   -0.1         6      4     -2 
 EVP/PE          1.8   2.3   +0.5         3      3      0 
 EDU/UDF         1.2   1.3   +0.1         1      2     +1 
 Others          8.9   5.1                8      7     -1
 ----------------------------------------------------------
 Total                                  200    200
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See also: Politics of Switzerland

External links and references

See also: Swiss elections, 2003, 1959, 1999, 19 October, 2003, Anti-immigration, Cantons of Switzerland, Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland, Christoph Blocher