Switzerland’s Green Party

Development – Action – Perspectives

Sarah Bütikofer, Werner Seitz (director)

Today, after 40 years of existence, the Swiss Green Party (GPS) is a fixture in the Swiss political landscape. It achieved 13 percent of the votes in the last national elections in 2019, is present in all language regions, governs in numerous cities and cantons and represents five cantons in the Council of States. When in May 1983 five ecological groups came together to form the “Federation of Green Parties in Switzerland”, this was the first step towards today’s GPS. The accession of the left-wing alternative Greens at the beginning of the 1990s was important for further development, as this strengthened their social, pacifist and feminist profile. While the Swiss Green Party increasingly competed with the Social Democratic Party (SP), in the second half of the noughties it and the SP faced competition from the more middle-class Green Liberals (GLP).
In this anthology, 18 authors examine GPS in all its facets. Their history and the profile of their voters, their intensive use of direct democratic instruments and the voting behavior of the Greens in the National Council are examined. A comparison with the other Greens in Europe shows that the GPS is particularly strong in voting and is clearly positioned on the left.