Payment due for political correctness, SVP fed up
Switzerland faced rare political turbulence yesterday as the leading far-right party vowed to make life difficult for lawmakers who ejected its strongman Christoph Blocher (pictured right) from the government.
The Swiss People’s Party (SVP) said its lawmakers would now go into opposition, raising the spectre of political paralysis.
The SVP is expected to exploit Switzerland’s system of direct democracy and popular referendums to harry ministers and block government initiatives.
“We will put pressure on parliament and the government with initiatives and referendums,” SVP official Caspar Baader said.
Swiss citizens have unusually strong legislative powers which the SVP will now hope to exploit. They vote four or five times a year in referendums at national level and may even launch their own under the country’s system of direct democracy.
Blocher, the key architect of the SVP’s rise over the past decade, on Wednesday failed to be re-elected to the seven-member Federal Council after lawmakers from the Left and the Christian Democrats voted against him. Blocher’s opponents across the political spectrum have all been appalled at abrasive style and crude rhetoric, particularly during October’s election campaign which produced acres of critical coverage in foreign media.
In Blocher’s place parliament elected Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, another SVP member but considered to be on the more moderate wing of the party. Blocher told lawmakers he could not decide whether to feel “relieved, disappointed or indignant” about the manner in which he was ejected from power.