Analysis: high alignment between Greens and Social Democrats

Siblings in arms: Green Party leader Balthasar Glättli and Social Democrat Co-President Mattea Meyer. © Keystone / Peter Klaunzer

In 2022, Switzerland’s major left-wing political parties voted the same way in parliament 94% of the time, writes the SonntagsZeitung newspaper.

The paper totted up the results of almost 1,000 parliamentary decisions over the past year, as part of a “political party check-up” ahead of elections in October this year.

Meanwhile the two major parties on the right of the spectrum, the Radical-Liberals and the People’s Party, voted the same way “only” 58% of the time, the SonntagsZeitung writes.

As for outcomes, the Centre party was most successful in parliament – i.e. it was most often part of the majority – while the People’s Party, the biggest in the country, was least often on the winning side.

The Greens, who were the big winners in national elections four years ago, evolved over the course of the legislature from being parliament’s “protest” party to last year voting as part of the majority in 64% of cases.

Fishing for a minister

With federal elections in October to be followed by the re-election of the seven-member government in December, there will surely also be debates this year about a re-jigging of the “magic formula” system which allocates ministers according to party strength, the paper writes.

The Greens are especially keen to break into the executive for the first time, something they have been claiming since their large gains four years ago.

The SonntagsZeitung reckons that its analysis shows a Green government seat should come at the expense of one of the two Social Democrat ministers, not one of the two Radical-Liberals or the sole Centre representative.

In a survey last October, a year out from elections, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company) found that the Liberal Greens were likely to make most gains, but that the overall party landscape would remain stable.