2003 Swiss federal election

Legislative elections in the Swiss Confederation were held on 19 October 2003. Although in Switzerland's peculiar political system, in which all four major parties form a permanent coalition, there can never be a change of government, this election produced an upset in the strong showing of the right-wing, anti-European Union and anti-immigration People's Party, led by Christophe Boucher. The left wing parties, the Socialists and the Greens, also improved their positions. The losers were the parties of the centre-right, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals.

The Legislature

Switzerland has a bicameral legislature, the Federal Assembly (Assemblée Fédérale / Bundesversammlung / Asamblea Federale / Assemblea Federala).

The National Council (Conseil National / Nationalrat / Consiglio Nazionale / Cussegl Naziunal) has 200 members, elected for four-year terms by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies corresponding to the 26 Swiss cantons and half-cantons.

The Council of States (Conseil des Etats / Ständerat / Consiglio degli Stati / Cussegl dals Stadis) has 46 members elected for four-year terms from multi-member and single-member constituencies.

These elections were to the National Council.

All parties in Switzerland have different names in French, German and Italian, and conduct separate campaigns in the different language areas.

Parties

Government parties

These four parties have formed a continuous coalition government since 1959, with the post of President of the Council (prime minister) rotating annually.

Swiss People's Party (right wing-populist)

SVP, Schweizerische Volkspartei
UDC, Union democratique du centre
UDC, Unione democratica di centro

Social-Democratic Party or Socialist Party (centre-left)

SDP, Sozialdemokratische Partei
PSS, Parti socialiste Suisse
PS, Partito socialista

Christian Democratic Party (centre-right)

CVP, Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei
PDC, Parti Democrate-Chretien
PDC, Partito popolare democratico

Radical Democratic Party (liberal)

FVP, Freisinnig-demokratische Volkspartei
PRD, Parti radical-democratique
PLR, Partito liberale radicale

Other parties

Green Lists (under different names in each Canton)

Liberal Party

LP, Liberale Partei
Les Liberaux

Evangelical People's Party

EVP, Evangelische Volkspartei
PE, Parti evangelique
PE, Partito evangelico

Federal Democratic Union

EDU, Eidgenossisch-Demokratische Union
UDF, Union Democratique Federale

Preliminary Results

Votes and seats for each party are compared with those polled in 1999.

Party       Votes (%)                Seats
----------------------------------------------------------
              1999   2003   99-03      1999   2003   99-03 
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SVP/UDC        22.5  27.7   +5.2        44     55    +11 
SPS/PSS/PS     22.5  24.2   +1.7        51     52    +01
FDP/PRD/PLR    19.9  16.0   -3.9        43     36    -07 
CVP/PDC        15.9  12.9   -3.0        35     28    -07 
Greens         05.0  07.7   +2.7         9     13    +04 
LPS/PLS        02.3  02.5   +0.2         6      4    -02 
EVP/PE         01.8  02.5   +0.7         3      3      0 
EDU/UDF        01.2  01.5   +0.3         1      2     +1 
Others         08.9  05.0                8      7     -1
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Total                                  200    200
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Because voting is conducted on a cantonal basis, detailed national voting statistics cannot yet be displayed here. They can be viewed at the wesbite of Statistics Switzerland

Sources: