The hard-right Swiss People's Party, which wants to tackle mass immigration and political correctness, vowed Monday to seek pragmatic solutions with other parties after comfortably topping Switzerland's general elections."I want to pursue a pragmatic policy: less political correctness, more issues that really concern people," he said, citing population growth, a secure energy supply and Swiss independence a key topic for a party that stands strongly for Switzerland's military neutrality and p
Switzerland looked set to shift to the right in its national elections on Sunday, as concerns about immigration and political correctness trumped fears about climate change and melting glaciers. The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), Switzerland's biggest political party, will increase its share of the vote to 29%, 3.4 percentage points higher than the last election in 2019, according to early projections by Swiss broadcaster SRF. Switzerland's second biggest party was poised to increase its share by 0.4 percentage points of the vote to 17.2%.
Lawmakers are divided on the issue. "We want to be neutral, but we are part of the western world," said Thierry Burkart, leader of the centre-right FDP party, who has submitted a motion to the government to allow arms re-exports to countries with similar democratic values to Switzerland.
"Even though we already have too little power it wants to outlaw heating oil, gas, diesel and petrol as energy sources." The party, which also favours tighter curbs on immigration, is the biggest in Switzerland's 200-member federal parliament. No other party has supported its referendum against the proposed legislation on climate change, which would accelerate CO2 emissions cuts and the roll-out of renewable energy, notably solar energy, backed by 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) of funding.
The SVP, a member of the ruling coalition in Bern, is campaigning against the law to make Switzerland carbon-neutral by 2050 but has so far failed to attract backing from other parties. The proposed legislation would accelerate CO2 emissions cuts and the rollout of renewables, notably solar energy, backed by 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.2 billion) of funding.