Transparency: The SP brings in more money than any other party

The main secretariat of the SP is the largest political party apparatus in Switzerland. Fifty-two are employed: activists and media spokespeople, fundraisers and so-called long-term interns. All the party equipment has grown a lot in recent years. When Cédric Wermuth and Mattea Meyer took over the presidency in 2020, they introduced new committees, subject commissions, working groups and a party council. The number of social democratic politics increased continuously: with additional initiatives, initiatives, referendums.

At the same time, the staff budget also increased, increasing by more than a million francs from one year to the next. Mattea Meyer said: “We have many projects. And every franc we invest in employees generates additional movement. ” Seen this way, every job is a guarantee that any additional salary will be compensated by additional contributions.

And so the SP is not a militia club, but a professional party: They don’t meet to fool around and swear, including meatloaf talk, but at the summer conference for workshop entitled “What’s next for the peace movement?” Meetings of other parties will be a two-hour spectacle with fireworks and dance groups, while the SP discusses Europe for two days. And those who are particularly committed can hope for a job in the party. The Central Secretariat at the same time leads and includes perhaps the largest permanent initiative in Swiss politics.

This is a view confirmed by the latest transparency report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For the past year, the parties had to disclose their income for the first time: donations, membership fees, income from events. According to this report, the SP had more money than any other party, by a wide margin. In 2023 he brought in just over nine million francs, followed by the SVP with just under six and the FDP with a good four million francs. It was a federal election year, so the numbers are likely to be very high.

The SP – the richest party in Switzerland? “We are confident that nearly 40,000 small donors are working with us,” wrote co-president Cédric Wermuth.

The figures from the latest transparency report do not tell the whole story – as every transparency rule creates new lack of transparency. For example, municipal or cantonal party sections do not have to disclose their funding. Nevertheless, the report shows how left-wing and basic bourgeois politics work in Switzerland.

The party is always right

The SP is the great machine of left party politics – and everything comes together in the main secretariat. More than two million francs in membership fees flow, the cantonal departments receive services from the headquarters, enterprises are run and financed themselves (in addition to the fact that they are supported by the -well resourced unions). To put it in jargon: the party is always right. “The SP is supported by its donors and small members,” wrote press spokesman Nicolas Haesler. In addition, anyone who holds a paid office will donate a significant portion of their salary to the party. On the left, politics is organized in the center.

The bourgeois parties work differently; they are devices with satellites. According to the general secretariat of the SVP, only fifteen people are working. Peter Keller, deputy general secretary of the SVP, said: “We have a tight and strong party leadership. This leads to quick decisions and allows us to use the resources in a targeted way for politics.” Membership fees go to the local parties, and we work with external groups or committees for campaigns.

While you are on the left you support the basics, the party’s excellent work, on the right you support individual projects. Christoph Blocher, the SVP’s most famous contributor, has explained his principle several times. He only gives money for special campaigns and when he knows what will happen with it. Said recently in SRF’s “Rundschau”: “If they just play practical jokes with him, they get nothing.”

The FDP, in turn, relies on an environment that has historically grown in its initiatives: business associations or chambers of commerce. When the Young Liberals put their pension campaign on the ballot in February, they did not receive support from the FDP, but from UBS, Swiss Re, Friends of the FDP and the Bonny Foundation. On the bourgeois side, politics is not centralized, but organized on a satellite basis.

The party on the left, the associations on the right

The differences are in the voting campaign for the BVG reform for example – on the bourgeois side it is financed by the “Alliance ‘Yes to the BVG Reform”” and by Swissmem, the association of the machine industry, on the left of the SP and the unions. The bourgeois has a budget of 3.4 million francs, the one on the left of 1.5 million francs – in addition to the “or” bourgeois alliance with 350,000 francs.

Although the SP is the richest party in Switzerland, with better funding than the bourgeois parties, the bourgeois campaigns are sometimes significantly better funded than those of the left.

When the parties had to disclose their income in the 2023 federal election campaign last year, it became clear: the FDP candidates received the most money (12.9 million francs), followed by the SVP (11.6 million francs) – and only then the SP with 7.9 million francs.

While the parties on the bourgeois side are exposed to the power of associations, foundations and sponsors, the power on the left is based in the leadership groups of the trade unions and in the large apparatus of the SP.