For the first time in history, Graubünden elects its parliament according to the proportional representation system. The poles are winning, the power of the established is crumbling.
With Carmelia Maissen (centre party), a woman has again been elected to the Graubünden government, only the third in history.
Up to now, Graubünden has been politicizing in a seemingly different time: the power in parliament belonged to the center and the FDP. The Greens weren’t even represented. The SVP? She was the second weakest party.
Now the Graubünden electorate re-elected their parliament on Sunday, and with a historic innovation: the seats were allocated according to the proportional system, not according to the majority as before. For the first time, the people of Graubünden voted like the rest of Switzerland.
A “melting of the political permafrost” had been expected, a minor political upheaval. Now it’s actually like this: the power of the established is crumbling. The center and the FDP lose a total of 26 seats.
The Poles, on the other hand, are gaining: SP and Greens started with a list, they now have 27 seats. This means that the Left Party in Parliament is now the second largest group, on a par with the FDP. The SVP gains 13 seats. Your time as a marginal phenomenon in Graubünden is definitely over.
The seat losses of the center and FDP had been expected. The majorz secured the power of the established parties because well-known local figures had an advantage. As a result, the FDP only got 13.6 percent of the votes in the 2019 federal elections, while occupying 30 percent of the seats in the cantonal parliament.
The change to proportional representation now brings a certain adjustment, with the center asserting itself as the strongest party. The CVP benefits here from the merger with the BDP, which traditionally has a strong electorate in Graubünden.
The Greens were slightly disappointed on the evening of the election: They got 2 seats in Parliament. The left camp in Graubünden thus remains clearly dominated by the SP, while the balance of power elsewhere in Switzerland is slowly changing.
The Corona crisis boss is a new member of the government
The election of the government caused a small sensation: the previous chief civil defense and military officer in the canton was elected to the government on the spot. Martin Bühler achieved the second best result of all.
Bühler was the head of the Corona crisis in Graubünden and implemented a special approach to the test strategy, which also gave him national fame. On Sunday, Bühler defended the vacated seat of the FDP. He got more votes than his boss in the pandemic, SP health director Peter Peyer.
The big loser of the government council election is the SVP. Your candidate surprisingly clearly misses the leap into government. This means that the party with the most votes in Switzerland remains absent from the Graubünden government.
The center defends its three seats with re-elected Marcus Caduff and Jon Domenic Parolini. A new addition is Carmelia Maissen, the previous mayor of Ilanz. She is only the third woman in the Graubünden government, which was recently an all-male body.
The federal court forces the new electoral system
Turnout was 38.4 percent on Sunday, higher than in the election four years ago. The number of candidates was historically high: almost 500 people stood for election, three times as many as in 2018.
The high number of candidates can be explained by the fact that the parties have an interest in nominating as many people as possible when it comes to proportional representation. In contrast to the Majorz, every vote counts in this system: Those for inferior candidates are not lost.
The center and the FDP only reluctantly gave up the majority. Several times failed requests for a change at the ballot box. The change brought only a judgment of the Federal Supreme Court. In 2019, the judges in Lausanne declared parts of the Grisons system illegal.
What followed was a long struggle for the new system, as many other cantons have already been through. In the future, only Appenzell Innerrhoden will vote for pure Majorz. Appenzell Ausserrhoden is currently practicing a mixed system, but is currently discussing a new constitution. This provides for a change to pure proportional representation.