The following parties are represented either in the Swiss Federal Assembly as of 2022 or in cantonal parliaments and executive councils as of 2021.[2] For their names in the four national languages of Switzerland, see #Names in the national languages below.
For more detailed information on the political positions of some of the parties listed below, see here:[3] For Swiss political party strength on the municipal level, see here:[4]
The government of Switzerland is a federal state with direct democracy.
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confederacy in the form of the first three confederate allies used to be referred to as the Waldstätte. Two important periods in the development of the Old Swiss Confederacy are summarized by the terms Acht Orte and Dreizehn Orte.
The Federal Council is the federal cabinet of the Swiss Confederation. Its seven members also serve as the collective head of state and government of Switzerland. Since after World War II, the Federal Council is by convention a permanent grand coalition government composed of representatives of the country's major parties and language regions.
The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, or Swiss Socialist Party, is a political party in Switzerland. The SP has had two representatives on the Federal Council since 1960 and received the second-highest number of votes in the 2019 Swiss federal election.
Vaud ,(German; Kanton Waad) more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts, and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms bears the motto "Liberté et patrie" on a white-green bicolour.
The National Council is the lower house of the Federal Assembly, and the upper house being the Council of States. With 200 seats, the National Council is the larger of the two houses.
The Green Party of Switzerland is a green political party in Switzerland. It is the fifth-largest party in the National Council of Switzerland and the largest party that is not represented on the Federal Council.
The Swiss People's Party, also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre, is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Marco Chiesa, it is the largest party in the Federal Assembly, with 62 members of the National Council and 6 of the Council of States.
The Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland, also called the Christian Democratic Party, Democratic People's Party and Swiss Christian Democratic Party, was a Christian-democratic political party in Switzerland. On 1 January 2021, it merged with the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland (BDP/PBD) to form The Centre, which now operates at the federal level. The Christian Democratic People's Party will continue to exist at the cantonal level as individual local and regional parties determine their status.
The Federal Assembly, also Swiss parliament, is the federal bicameral legislature of Switzerland. The lower house is the 200-seat National Council and the upper house is the 46-seat Council of States. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace.
Voting in Switzerland is the process by which Swiss citizens make decisions about governance and elect officials. The history of voting rights in Switzerland mirrors the complexity of the nation itself. The polling stations are opened on Saturdays and Sunday mornings but most people vote by post in advance. At noon on Sunday, voting ends and the results are usually known during the afternoon.
In Swiss politics, the magic formula is an arithmetic formula for dividing the seven executive seats on the Federal Council among the four coalition parties. The formula was first applied in 1959. It gave the Free Democratic Party, the Catholic Conservative Party and the Social Democratic Party two seats each, while the Party of Farmers, Traders and Independents received one seat.
The Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland was a conservative political party in Switzerland from 2008 to 2020. After the 2019 federal election, the BDP had three members in the National Council.
FDP.The Liberals is a liberal political party in Switzerland. It is tied for the largest party in the Federal Council, is the third-largest party in the National Council and is the second-largest in the Council of States.
A popular initiative allows people to suggest laws on a national, cantonal, and municipal level.
There are 26 constituencies in Switzerland – one for each of the 26 cantons of Switzerland – for the election of the National Council and the Council of States.
The Centre or Alliance of the Centre is a centre-right political party in Switzerland. It was formed through the merger of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland (CVP/PDC) and the Conservative Democratic Party of Switzerland (BDP/PBD). Following the formal merger of the parties on 1 January 2021, it has 28 of 200 seats in the National Council and 13 of 46 seats in the Council of States. Viola Amherd is the party's representative on the Federal Council.
A by-election to the Swiss Federal Council was held on 20 September 2017, after federal councillor Didier Burkhalter (FDP-NE) announced he would leave the Council effective 31 October 2017. The by-election resulted in the election of Ignazio Cassis (FDP-TI), resulting in no change in the partisan composition of the council.
↑ Kevin Gertsch; Chantal Tauxe (24 December 2014). "L'UDC n'est pas le premier parti de Suisse" [The UDC is not the largest party in Switzerland]. L'Hebdo. pp.62–63.
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