Green parties make historic gains in Swiss election

Green parties have made historic gains at the expense of those to the right and the left in elections to the Swiss parliament.

Final results show the left-wing Green Party winning 13% of the vote for the House of Representatives – up nearly 6% on 2015 and their best result ever. The centrist Liberal Greens also increased their share of the vote to 7.9% from 4.6%.

The right-wing People’s Party remains the largest group in the House ahead of the left-wing Social Democrats.

Overall, the left and the centre have gained ground, prompting speculation about a reshuffle of the multi-party government.

The seven-member executive is currently made up of members of the main four parties, but not the Greens.

Lukas Golder of the leading GfS Bern research and polling institute said the shift to the Greens in all the three language regions is a historic event for Swiss politics.

Environmental concerns dominated campaigns in the run-up to Sunday’s vote. Numerous street protests demanding action on climate change took place across the Switzerland over the past ten months.

Via SwissInfo