Swiss Social Democrats get 1,000 new members after Trump victory

"People here are sending a clear signal: they don't want Donald Trump's policies to come to Switzerland," said Wermuth. Keystone / Gian Ehrenzeller

The election of Donald Trump in the United States has had a direct impact on the Social Democratic Party in Switzerland. In the space of three days, the party says it has welcomed around 1,000 new members, a record number.

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This influx is “totally surprising and represents the highest number of new members recorded over a few days since we have been able to track developments,” party co-president Cédric Wermuth told Swiss public television RTS on Saturday.

“We’re going to see a hardening of the right in Switzerland too, and people here are sending a clear signal: they don’t want Donald Trump’s policies to come to Switzerland,” said the parliamentarian.

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Throughout the week, the Social Democrats were active on social networks, making direct reference to Trump to motivate its supporters to become party members.

This “Trump effect” seems to be confined to the Social Democrats and the Green Party, which recorded around 100 new memberships. On the right of the political spectrum, there was no rush for membership cards.

A quarter of Swiss voters would have voted for Donald Trump

“This election shows that the ideas, attitudes and values of conservative parties can become mainstream and that they are in tune with the times. They can appeal to a lot of people, and that also has an influence on Switzerland,” says Cloé Jans, an analyst at gfs.bern.

In fact, compared with other European countries, a quarter of Swiss voters would have given their vote to Trump. This is significantly more than in Scandinavia and Switzerland’s neighbouring countries, according to a Gallup poll carried out ahead of the US presidential election and reported by Tamedia newspapers. The survey was conducted among 41,000 adults in 43 countries.

+ Poll suggests Donald Trump has many fans in Switzerland

In Switzerland, 61% of respondents supported Kamala Harris. In Denmark, only 4% were in favour of Trump, compared with 7% in Finland and Norway, 11% in the Netherlands, 13% in Germany and France, 16% in Austria and 18% in Italy. On the other hand, support for Trump was high in Eastern Europe: in Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria, almost half of those questioned would have voted for the billionaire.

Translated from French with DeepL/gw

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