Jue, Mar 23rd 2023
During Switzerland’s last national election year, 2019, the Green Party saw a surge of popularity; but, that is not likely to happen in 2023, according to a survey of Swiss voters from Zurich-based Sotomo research institute.
In fact, no party has emerged as a frontrunner for the national parliamentary elections on October 22, but the Green Party will likely be a loser. While 42% of Swiss voters polled say that “climate change” is still the biggest challenge facing the country, the Green Party will likely drop 2.5 percentage points in popularity. The centrist Liberal Green Party did not fare well in the survey either.
“The decline of the Green Party can be explained by a certain fall in climate-related political activity: the enthusiasm that was generated four years ago by the student-led climate strikes has subsided,” Sotomo director Michael Hermann told SWI SwissInfo.
Meanwhile the “Social Democrats have regained some of their voters who switched to the Greens in 2019,” Hermann said. That party is expected to gain one percentage point among voters, making it the second strongest party in the nation.
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) remains the most popular party in Switzerland and may gain another percentage point in 2023. This is largely because immigration – one of the central issues for the SVP – is the second most important issue to Swiss voters in 2023, according to the poll.
“At the time, the debate over the mass immigration initiative, the Syrian refugee crisis, and the attack on Charlie Hebdo led to the issue of immigration overshadowing other topics. We are a long way from that,” Hermann said.
Only 4% of voters polled cited unemployment and salary worries as a main issue, according to the poll. Another 11% of voters said “wokeism” is an important issue when they go to the polls. The SVP’s fight against “wokeism” has been highly publicized. (Read more: Will the ‘Pro-Schweiz’ movement catch on in Switzerland?)
Overall, the Sotomo poll found that 2023 will see no major upheavals; although it was conducted before the controversial UBS takeover of Credit Suisse. That said, nearly every political party has criticized the move.
“The Social Democrats could take advantage of the situation and take a stance on the issue at the expense of the parties on the right and of the Green parties,” said Hermann.
Stay tuned for more 2023 election coverage.
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