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The people of Zurich are punishing the pole parties SP and SVP in the elections. She longs for reason, balance and compromise.
Lots of excitement and yet everything stays the same – at least almost. With its candidate Simone Brander, the SP regains the fourth seat that the party lost four years ago. FDP City Councilor Michael Baumer manages his re-election after a nail-biter. This after a veritable election thriller, in which AL candidate Walter Angst threatened to snatch the seat away from the previous candidate. But in the end, the AL lost its seat. The only option is to go back to the opposition, where the party may be more comfortable.
Green forces strengthened in Parliament
Overall, Zurich has become a little greener on today’s election Sunday. The Greens and the Green Liberals emerge as winners from the parliamentary elections. Even after two years of the corona pandemic, the topic of climate is now the top priority again.
Secondly, Zurich has become more pragmatic: the previous SP members and the Green Party candidates have achieved very good results on the city council. They are all typical executive representatives who stand up for balance and look for pragmatic solutions. With the Green Liberals and the Center, those forces that are pragmatic and stand between the poles have also won in Parliament. SP, SVP and AL, on the other hand, lost seats.
Warning signal for left-wing parties
The fact that the SP suffered an electoral defeat in parliament should be a lesson for the party. It has lost six seats and, with 37 women councillors, has fewer parliamentarians than it has in 100 years. The politics of the city party contributed to this result. Stadtzürcher SP behaved as if it were an opposition party – and not as if it had been responsible for city politics for many years.
SP, Greens and AL defended their majority in parliament by a hair’s breadth. But this result is also a warning signal: the left must be careful! The voters don’t want a camp that simply marches through.
Alliance of Reason should be strengthened
The election result can be interpreted as a clear call for cooperation, an alliance of reason towards more balance and compromise. The electorate also wants to see the FDP, which was able to win a seat on the municipal council, in this alliance. The fact that the SVP loses three seats in parliament is probably due to the fact that the population could not do much with the skepticism about the corona measures. The population growth and the success of the city did not play into the SVP’s hands either.
The city of Zurich has been governed by the left-green party for 32 years. In that time it has changed from a city with lots of unemployment and drugs to a booming metropolis that attracts residents and has a lot to offer.