I wouldn't let it bother you; the BDP only got their Bundesrat seat by ousting a democratically SVP member with under the table tactics. Frau Widmer-Schlumpf will be enjoying Christmas with her family this year and won't be on the 2012 Bundesrat annual photograph.

Well, in theory only 7 more years to go!

My favourites! Pizza included!

But on a serious note, I actually read their home page (hurray! it's in English!) and they do make quite some interesting points. Maybe I should really keep an eye on them, since I've been out of party for quite a while due to gigantic difference in ideals.

Shhhhhh... Don't say that out loud! Remember the secret vow of the FGS*!

I laughed more than I should have...

I have one of those at home too.











FGS - Female Geek Squadron

...if I could vote they would have mine...anyway I hope they win!
Because sharing copyrighted material => guilty => jail sentence => deportation!!!

...and according to smartvote I am "shockingly" all GP & SP ...but I have to wait for 4 years...

I do agree in regard to various points
-- a below-4% party should NOT be in the Bundesrat
-- as much as I detest Ayatollah B., his ousting was mean + wrong
-- I may become old, but I prefer the CVP-1/SP-2/FDP.-2/SVP-2
--- to some strange combination
BUT
Edith Piaf (Mrs Widmer Schlumpf) since having become Bundesrat has proven to be shrewd, ruthless, tricky and ambitious. So that the cards are not yet settled.

Not especially politically insightful, but Fr Calmy-Rey (Swiss President) sat next to me on the plane to Moscow this week. Seat 6A. No fuss, no security, no entourage...but the same crappy salty snacks as the rest of us got (only with a "Madame La President" from the cabin crew as they offered her a choice between the meat and the vegetarian option).

She got on as a normal punter, had to wait with the rest of us to get her bag from the overhead cabin, but then went right at the cockpit door down the stairs to Medvedev and the waiting limos.

Its great to live in a country where the boss is treated so normally and where (with notable exceptions - Herrn Brünner & Blocher) political office seems generally to be sought for reasons of principle rather than status

You could have made your post shorter: "I flew business class and didn't get the freakin' window seat 'cos of the president."

Thanks for sharing.

Socialists all the way there the only ones who care about the people

Sorry, that was a bit too deep and meaningful for me to exactly understand in any clear way. Care to share this awe inspiring piece of wisdom with us mere mortals?

Show me a nation that has successfully implemented a functioning socialist state and I'll show you a trail of non-performing, badly run wannabes that created more misery than capitalism ever could.

He said socialist.... not communism

Try Mitterand's France of the 80s

Yeah, those were the good old socialists caring for the working class decades ago. Unfortunately they're almost entirely gone these days.
These days all most socialists/greens care for are government employees and those in the social/care industry. That's why they relentlessly try to impose more taxes, bureaucracy, restrictions and wealth redistribution upon us.

I'd rather have some liberties left instead of living in a full-blown nanny state.

Thanks, but no thanks!

As far as smartvote is concerned, I found that I get better results if I only answer questions I really care about.

Most Socialists in the world work under the label Social Democats or Labour Party as only few of them in the world want to implement a "socialist state". And most Socialists have even given up the idea to make the state the owner of the economy. Socialists/SocialDemocrats usually are in favour of social ideas/ideals, BUT you may keep in mind who in post-war West Germany created the Social State and the Soziale Marktwirtschaft ? It was Konrad Adenauer, a chap who definitely was NOT a Socialist, not even in his worst nightmares And many SocialDemocrats (Tony Blair + Gerhard Schröder) have been remarkably right-wing and did lots of privatisations . In Germany, the SPD already in 1959 under Erich Ollenhauer introduced the Bad Godesberger Programm which supported the Free Social Market Economy. A position which the Swiss Social Democrats only slowly took over. You may have noted the change from Moritz Leuenberger (a man silently in favour of state ownership and state control in the economy) to Mrs Sommaruga, who just like Micheline Calmy-Rey is much in favour of Social matters and aspects but is not in favour of a state-controlled economy.

No politician "cares about the people", regardless of party affiliation.

Tom

The swiss people unlike many others understand the important of taxation, the socialists call for high taxes because they realize that a lot of people need social assistance from the government. The problem with the SVP and the right wing parties is that they also want this social assistance but they dont want to raise taxes to pay for it. We understand that the bitter pill must be swallowed to help the people.
There is one thing you all need to understand there is one fundamental difference between the swiss socialists and the socialists of the rest of the world. THe swiss socialists know that they cannot win a majority in government they know that the people will never allow it. Thats why a 'socialist state' would never be created in Switzerland as some of you have pointed out.
Also the swiss and the foreigners who are rich need to be put under control the socialists do believe in fair wealth distribution, obviously people can own property were not communist but we believe that if you earn more it should be given back to society this should be true for both the swiss rich and expats who come here for the good tax situation.
the SVP should have a drop in votes seeing as the right wing areas of Bern and Graubuenden will likely vote for the BDP. I hope that the swiss will wake up and vote for the left not just for their sake to help them, but so that the balance of power can be kept and no party become to strong.
It is the socialists who care for the basic working class swiss the SVP only care for the rich and FDP only for the business owners the CVP only for christians, the socialists are the only ones who truly represent the people

That's a list of your opinions, not facts. Whilst I'd agree about the SP realizing that they're never going to gain a majority in either house, it's rather naïve to say that the FDP and SVP only care about the rich and business owners. Notwithstanding that small companies (KMUs) are the solid back bone of this nation, we have a social welfare system that discourages claimants to benefit from remaining unemployed. Raising taxes is one sure way to hinder company development and expansion in this country because our economy is so dependent on exports and with the Swiss France currently so strong, it's proving very difficult for many organizations to maintain healthy profit levels which they need to prosper; raising taxes would only hamper their efforts even further.

Fair wealth distribution is an ideal that cannot and should not be implemented in my opinion. Switzerland's unique selling point to high net worth individuals and foreign corporations is our individually structured (Pauschal) tax system in the Cantons that have embraced it. Your Swiss socialism is doing a great job in GE and VD, two of the most in debt Cantons, and there's a trail of overspending incompetence in recent domestic history. Without any form of control your beloved socialism would have dragged Switzerland into the EU, embraced the Euro with a warm hug and there would be no telling how much of a mess our economy would be in now as we would be bound to bailing out a bunch of corrupt and inept Euro countries just like France and Germany are having to do now.

On the other hand, we could just agree to both stay home on voting day in October as it looks like we're just going to offset each others' vote anyway...!

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My Brother beat you to the punch and already plans on offsetting my vote, so you would have the upper hand. Lets agree to wait it out and then see what the rest of the Swiss population think. Although politically we have different views i'm sure we can both agree that this will be a historic election in Swiss history and it will be interesting to see how things go.

Well, the LEGA will get most of my votes, the remainder to the Radicals and (maybe) UDC, plus maybe some friends in weird (i.e. left leaning) parties.

Tom

Out of curiosity: what makes this elections so special?

(I can't vote, so can't make a difference.)

They're always kind of unique here because they are scheduled and everyone knows when they're going to happen, unlike Italy, for example, when it seems like they have a string of "no-confidence" votes and the populace have to keep on pretending that they care.

It is also time to re-address the balance in the Bundesrat and there are a bunch of possibilities which will be appearing in the media from late August onwards. Fact is, being as our democracy is so, well, democratic, it's pretty much impossible for anything too radical to occur as the system is set up for Konkordanz, which has been suitably discussed in other threads here.

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Well this is election is special because of how things are. The socialists have been losing power gradually over the years while the SVP have been gaining huge amounts of power, now theres one central point about swiss politics, the swiss hate when people boast (hence why Blocher was thrown out) and the swiss do not like it when one party gains too much power. So what could happen is that the SVP lose seats because the swiss keep them in check or something unprecedented in post war swiss politics that the SVP continue to become more powerful and maybe even form a majority DUN DUN DUN. Also so political analysts are saying that the FDP might lose so many seats that they lose a seat in the Federal council giving them only one. That is why i find this election special.

Also just wondering Assassin, are you a full blooded swiss, or did you originate from somewhere else.

The SVP is represented by a meagre 13% in the Staenderat, and 29% in the Nationalrat - and as both chambers have the same weight, to gain a majority in parliament, the SVP would have to win +>37% in the Staenderat.

Not too realistic, no?