Swiss Conservatives Win Big

ZURICH: Swiss politics is set to become even more conservative after the expected success of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) in Sunday's general election. The big SVP win will increase their seats in the parliament to a record number, as well as guarantee retention of the two SVP seats on the governing, seven member Federal Council.

The People's Party took 28.8% of the vote in elections for the House of Representatives, up 2.1% from 2003 results. The People's Party gained the most votes among the four governing parties since 1919 and could win up to 62 of the 200 seats in the House.

This means that Switzerland wil remain the world's leading offshore financial haven and that Swiss banking secrecy remains secure. It also guarantees that Swiss relations with the European Union will not be any easier. The EU has been a major critic of Swiss financial privacy laws. The SVP, and the Swiss people as a whole, repeatedly have rejected demands for repeal of bank secrecy, a traditional attraction for foriegn investors worldlwide.

The election also serves as a rebuff to EU, French and German demands that Swiss cantons raise their comparatively lower corporate and individual income taxes. The low taxes have attracted many wealthy citizens and companies from high tax EU nations.

The Swiss campaign was dominated by Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, the SVP leader and his party's hard-line stance on immigrants and crime. The popular Blocher helped the SVP to another election win on Sunday by lending his face to the cause. "Support Blocher! Vote SVP!" read posters plastered around Switzerland in the run-up to the parliamentary election as the party used the 67-year-old's image to mobilize voters.

A self-made man and fan of Winston Churchill, Blocher is credited with having helped transform the SVP over the last 20 years from a party with mainly rural voters to a more mainstream, conservative-populist grouping. Along the way, he has won support by campaigning against bogus benefit claimants, foreign criminals, dishonest asylum seekers and demands from Switzerland's EU neighbors.