Politics have always (or for many years) been my 3rd biggest interest.

I read the free news papers like 20min and .ch but the background articles are non existent in those papers. My current German level also make it a waste of money to subscribe to a more serious paper.

Can you recommend a forum/site with more discussion/background.

I will be ok with something in German, since I can then use it when I have the time to translate a text, and not have to pay the fees when I don't have the time.
Maybe the Kanton have accessible info on local legislation.

Would either of these be any good to start off with?
Tagesanzeiger or NZZ
Keeping my fingers crossed that the links work

Then there's always good old swissinfo.ch, articles are based on mainstream newspapers (Tagi, NZZ, Le Matin etc.),
translated into several languages with some context (sidebar) added to aid understanding.

Its aim is to promote understanding of Switzerland/Swiss issues across the globe.

or maybe you want to see where the SVP types get their information from?

http://www.blick.ch/

I sometimes find Google News Schweiz informative.

I admit that both NZZ and Tages-Anzeiger are Zurich-based newspaper, but their coverage of national votes is very good and usually aggregated in a "Dossier" on their website. For the rest and English language, I'd go to Swissinfo.

SVP is conservative/ nationalist. Blick is sensational/ socialist.