Contents
Joint lists with larger parties need to be well thought out. Connections between equally strong partners are ideal.
List affiliations can bring a party additional seats that it would not have received without partnering with another party.
The real list queen is the GLP. The Green Liberals have been winning seats for years, thanks to clever partnerships.
The left-wing parties – the Greens and the SP – usually unite across the board, even in this election year. There is nothing wrong with that, says political science professor Daniel Bochsler.
«It can be shown mathematically that a list connection always makes sense. If it doesn’t do any good, it doesn’t do any harm either,” says Bochsler.
Up to 24 seats are in it
List connections are possible in the National Council in all cantons that have at least two seats. With list connections, parties lose fewer remaining votes that are not enough for their own seat.
However: “The decisive factor for success is who the parties go to bed with,” says Bochsler. Linked lists in National Council elections have great potential: parties could gain up to two dozen additional seats.
The decisive factor for success is who the parties go to bed with.
It is best to connect with parties of roughly the same size, according to the political scientist. Those who choose a much larger partner often draw the short straw. Because the connection tends to benefit the larger party in particular. The smaller partner even helps the larger one with the remaining mandates.
Hardly anyone goes with the SVP
That is why the SVP, the party with the most votes in Switzerland, has been struggling to unite for years. She sees her most natural partner in the FDP.
SVP President Marco Chiesa is calling on the liberals to create a nationwide list connection in Switzerland.
For Chiesa, some cantons are eligible for a joint list, he specifically mentions the two cantons of Neuchâtel and Zug. In Neuchâtel, the FDP is much more strongly represented in the National Council than the SVP, in the canton of Zug it is the other way around.
The FDP hesitates
However, the FDP reacts cautiously to the advances of the SVP. Vice President and National Councilor Andri Silberschmidt says: “A nationwide alliance with the SVP does not make sense for the FDP.”
A nationwide alliance with the SVP makes no sense for the FDP.
But in some cantons, the FDP will probably enter into list connections, including with the SVP. For Silberschmidt, joint lists for the FDP are only worthwhile where they are superior to the SVP, for example in French-speaking Switzerland.
Connection needs to be well thought out
But political scientist Bochsler emphasizes that a party shouldn’t just think mathematically. A party must also take its electorate into consideration. The SVP is too polarized and too radical for many FDP voters. The Liberals, on the other hand, oriented themselves more in the direction of the center parties.
But according to Bochsler, the political center should think twice about connecting with the larger FDP. He considers a merger of the two smaller parties, the center and the GLP, to be much more obvious.