Green and Liberal Green parties kick off election campaigns

The left-wing Green Party hopes to repeat its success of 2019, when it made significant gains. © Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi

The Swiss Green and Liberal Green parties set out their campaign themes on Saturday in the run-up to this autumn’s federal elections.

At a delegates’ assembly in the town of Olten, northwest Switzerland, the left-wing Greens promised to mobilize for the climate, biodiversity and a more equal society. They also had something to say about the UBS takeover of troubled Credit Suisse bank under a government-backed deal. Party president Balthasar Glättli said that if the state is making billions available in guarantees, it should make respecting climate goals a condition. “If the climate was a big bank, the government would already have saved it,” he told delegates.

The Greens hope to repeat their success in the last federal elections in 2019, when they made big inroads. The Green Party won 13% of the vote for the House of Representatives – up nearly 6% on 2015 and their best result ever. The centrist Liberal Greens also increased their share of the vote to 7.9% from 4.6%.

The Liberal Green party, whose delegates met on Saturday in the northern town of Rheinfelden, also launched its election campaign under the slogan “having the courage to find solutions”. Its president Jürg Grossen appealed for long-term policies that build cross-party consensus to tackle numerous challenges such as climate change, the Ukraine war, the energy crisis and the collapse of Credit Suisse.

The Liberal Greens also called for a responsible economy. They joined the Social Democrat and Green parties in calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the UBS takeover of Credit Suisse.