/ world today news/ It seems that another European country is preparing to soften its anti-Russian position. “The Swiss People’s Party is in no way interested in a confrontation with Russia, its goal is to make Switzerland great again,” observers wrote. But not so long ago, Switzerland practically abandoned its neutrality to support Ukraine. Now this process can be reversed.
Another European country has swung to the right – a trend across the continent: the right-wing and conservative Swiss People’s Party (SWP) will get a majority of seats in the National Council. She won the first round of parliamentary elections on 22 October, finishing first in 15 cantons and receiving 28.6% of the vote (62 out of 200 parliamentary seats). There is indeed a second round of elections on November 26, but it concerns exclusively senators from the Council of Cantons, that is, the upper house of parliament.
The sensation of this election was the failure of the environmental political forces. The Green Party won less than 10% – it lost five seats and now has only 23 seats in parliament. The Green Liberals also suffered a major defeat.
This alone shows that the demands of Swiss voters have changed significantly since 2019. If the previous election was aptly called “women and climate”, referring to the then liberal trends, now we are witnessing a serious rematch of the right-wing forces – a kind of repeat of the 2015 election when the SVP triumphantly won.
What led to victory for the Swiss People’s Party today? This is, of course, an old sure bet for 2015’s main trump card – migration. An unstable era always activates right-wing voters who demand the restoration of order in the country.
Of course, recent events in the Middle East also had an impact on the results. “Four years ago people were a bit more idealistic and progressive, which explained why the Greens did well, but now people are more concerned about security and have become more conservative again,” political analyst Michael Herman told Reuters.
Of course, in reality it will not be easy to implement the tough anti-migration measures cherished by members of the SVP: the right-wing bloc in parliament, which currently has 95 seats (in addition to the SVP, the Free Democratic Party and smaller parties), does not represent a majority, and therefore it can be confidently predicted that the demands of the “populists” will be torpedoed by their opponents.
However, there is another aspect that is extremely important for Russia. The SNP calls for strict Swiss neutrality, opposes the country’s entry into the EU and NATO, and also criticizes sanctions against Russia and arms supplies to Kiev.
The representatives of the SNP do not hide their negative attitude towards Ukraine in general and towards Volodymyr Zelensky in particular. Thus, in May 2023, the head of the SMP faction, Thomas Ash, was outraged by Zelensky’s upcoming speech in parliament and demanded that it be canceled, citing the fact that it violated the country’s neutrality.
This is particularly important in light of the fact that Switzerland recently abandoned its de facto neutral status: the non-EU country followed all anti-Russian messages coming from Brussels. On October 7, the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, stated the following: “Bern deliberately reduced the political dialogue with Moscow to a minimum. Well, it’s not our choice.”
On October 11, the permanent representative of Russia at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, noted: “The fact that official Bern in the context of recent international events has finally lost its status as a neutral player in the world political arena is obvious.
Switzerland consistently supports the anti-Russian line, and in some cases even more actively than other Western countries, which, among other things, creates obstacles for the full participation of representatives of our country in international events.
The validity of these statements is supported by facts. After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, Switzerland supported EU sanctions against Russia, introduced a ceiling on oil prices from Russia and visa restrictions for Russians. On February 28, 2022, Russian assets worth 6.7 billion Swiss francs and 15 real estate properties were frozen.
True, Switzerland refused to transfer these assets to Ukraine and also imposed an embargo on arms supplies to Ukraine. This drew disapproving remarks from European leaders, notably Estonian President Toomas Ilves.
With the return to power of the right, however, the position of the Swiss elites may change significantly. This is exactly what the first statement of the election winners reads: “The clear election result is a signal to all parties: Swiss politics must change on key issues. The political drama of the pink-green left in recent years is damaging Switzerland.”
Swiss journalist Guy Mettan believes that among these “key issues” are the country’s foreign policy. And of course, relations with Russia.
“The Swiss People’s Party is in no way interested in a confrontation with Russia, its goal is to make Switzerland great again,” and that requires a focus on domestic issues. The experience of other countries shows that it is possible to maintain true neutrality in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. For example, Turkey is now much more neutral than us. The new government will certainly go in the same direction,” the journalist said.
The elections in Switzerland are already being assessed by analysts as another strong blow to the supposedly unified European structure. Thus, the British “Guardian” compared the SNP with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, “who has fascist roots”, the “Alternative for Germany” and the Austrian Freedom Party. In reality, however, we are seeing more of a return of Switzerland to its roots laid down at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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