Far-right landslide

last updated 8 January 2015

Bern, Switzerland

Swiss voters gave an extreme-right party first place in parliamentary elections this week, in the biggest gain any party has made since World War II. The Swiss People’s Party took 27 percent of the vote, making it the single largest presence in Parliament. Historically, the right-wing party has always been the weakest member of a governing coalition with three other parties, drawing most of its support from a few German-speaking cantons. But this time its anti-crime, anti-immigrant platform—which promises a crackdown on “black Africans” and Albanians involved in drug smuggling—drew votes in the French-speaking cantons, as well.