Hi, at least in Zurich there seem to be 10 svp posters on billboards for every one of the rest. Not kidding, I'm typing this on the bus, when I looked up from my phone a moment ago I counted 3 svp posters.

Does this give them a real advantage or is it money down the drain? Can they buy the election?

If it's good enough for the US.

According to the book "Freakeconomics", the extra money spent on billboards etc has a negligible impact, there are others however who feel it has a huge impact. The answer? No one really knows but most assume it does.

Svp has three separate adverts in this morning's 20minuten.

At least at lindenplatz someone has defaced several svp posters. Some in HB too. Criminal actions apparently, must be foreigners right???? ;-(

Yes they are. The general feeling is that they are bankrolled by billionaire party grandees like Blocher and Frey. But in Switzerland, political parties do not have to tell where they get their money from, or how much they spend on campaigns.

Ironically Switzerland signed up to Greco (Groupe d’Etats contre la corruption or Groupe of States Against Corruption) at at time when no other than Mr. Blocher was justice secretary. SVP parlamentarians are now crying blue murder because they thought Greco was about bribes (paid by foreigners?), when it also has a section on transparency that requires political parties to list their donors.

In an interview in Blick last Sunday Blocher stated he was happy to spend "a million or two" to damage the EU bi-lateral treaties.

Well this just about sums it up... Have a look at the development of the political parties over the last 50 years - and guess where Mr. Blocher entered the scene. Sadly enough it is rather obvious!

Maybe things aren't that simple. Let's not forget that in 1991 the SVP was the only major party that was campaigned against Switzerland joining the European Economic Area, a lonely voice crying in the wilderness. Practically all other parties predicted an absolute desaster if Switzerland stayed outside. Despite the heavy propaganda barrage by the other parties, the populace voted against the EEA. It turned out Switzerland could keep itself out of many turmoils by not joining. I suspect that brought the SVP many voters.

I couldn't agree more. That's what gets the SVP votes, they stuck to their political goals and let everybody know about. As I've posted before, their tactics are about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but you know exactly what you're going to get when your crosses get entered onto list #1 on your voting papers in 10 days time.

Now, can anyone tell the viewers without digging too deep where the CVP, EVP & FDP stand on bilaterals and EU membership?

every man should have a hobby

FDP stand on bilaterals and EU membership?

Post 124 here
Swiss Federal Elections 2011

And what is the position of the SVP when it comes to the bilateral treaties?

That is probably one of the most interesting questions in the near political future of this country. So far SVP have communicates that they support the bilateral approach. However, their new expulsion initiative seems to be a direct attack on those treaties and some recent comments also suggest they'd rather have the treaties cancelled. Will be interesting to see if they can fid any majorities on this one. So dar we've had a whole range of referenda on the bilaterals and (albeit close) the country has voted in favour every single time.

Clearly things aren't quite as simple - but the original question was how many votes the enormous spending of SVP can buy - and I think your example suns up just about everything that SVP is. In 1991 a relatively unknown politician from Zürich was the main (and solitary) voice in the country and he engaged in an enormous advertising war with every political and economic faction on the country - and to the surprise of quite a few successfully kept Switzerland out of the EU. In a recent article in Tages-Anzeiger they discussed the cost of political campains and apparently the 1991 EG Referendum has by far been the most expensive on to date for all the parties involved - driven by a billionaire from Herrliberg! This referendum has defined the "modern" SVP and what they stand for. It has also kick-started Blochers career in politics and taken political advertising to a new level not seen before in this country.

Also, if you ever have the 'pleasure' of talking to Mr Blochers you will soon notice that he is not really anti-foreigner so much but much rather very steogly anti EU. In fact he doesn't really like talkin about the xenophobic policies and propaganda that his party runs because it seems he's a little embarassed about it - but knows fullwell that this is the most successful way to strengthen his party.

I know, this perfectly illustrates that the SVP is actually very far from the WYSIWYG-image they have and that they carefully seek to promote.

Thanks Tomberli,

But the big B being embarrassed? Haha, I don't think he could understand that sentiment if his life depended on it..

And it certainly wasn't Mr Blocher alone that toppled the EG/EU vote.. lots of people, that would not ever consider voting on the side of the SVP (even back then) wouldn't stand for the big superstate... while the statistics may put him singlehandledly at the top of this campaign, I do believe this explanation is a bit too convenient and he had less influence.

In an interview in Blick last Sunday Blocher stated he was happy to spend "a million or two" to damage the EU bi-lateral treaties.
Blocher is the SVP strategist so I assume this is a good indication?

Yeah, embarassed is probably the wrong word. Let's say he doesn't like talking about it and will try to move the discussion to foreign / economic policy.

And I completely agree with you 2nd statement - it was obviously a much mire complex situation and the whole country was involved in the political debate at the time. The point is that a few years down the track, Blocherli is remembered as the one who kept us out of the EU and SVP got the political capital from it - not any of the other parties.

Agreed, but to be honest, that's only because he has his minions shouting it from the rooftops...

Is that the same Blocher who said "we should try (dare) it" about the free movement of persons?

Or the same SVP that always states that they only want to renegotiate certain agreements, fully knowing that a) the necessary termination of one aggreement automatically entails the termination of all the agreements and b) that Switzerland would be in such a bad position for the subsequent renegotiations that we would have to offer way more then that we had to in the past negotiations...