[Culturechat] The "magic" is gone from "The Magic Formula"

[Vance Roy]

Sunday, the Swiss held national elections. These are comparable to the 
USA presidential elections held every four years in early November. 
This year, the far right Party (SVP or People's Party) scored large 
gains in parliament  and took 5% more of the vote than in 1999. Most of 
the gains were from the two center right parties, who lost seats.

The so called "Magic Formula" is a consensus government that has been 
at work since 1959. This consists of two seats each in the Federal 
Council (the executive branch of the CH government)  for the two center 
right parties and two for the left party, with the SVP having one seat. 
With the new results in, even the leftist French Swiss see that the 
ratio of the council must change.

The Christian Democrats, a center right party will likely have to give 
the boot to one of their councilors  now sitting on the Federal 
Council. That person will be replaced by another SVP member of what we 
would call the senate in the USA. He/she will be elected by the whole 
parliament.

Though not said (as yet), the person the SVP wants in their second seat 
is Christoph Blocher, a wealthy industrialist who reminds me of Pat 
Buchanen. He and his party are dead against CH entering the EU, 
liberalizing asylum laws, and a host of other projects that the more 
liberal parties had hoped to come to fruition.

The final tally shows that the SVP made inroads into French CH and even 
took two seats in the liberal stronghold of Geneva. It seems that the 
grassroots are not happy with some of the liberal policies of recent 
years. Move over, California.

What does this mean? We will have to wait and see. If the other five 
members of the council stick together, not much will happen. Time tells.

Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch

“Never under estimate the ingenuity of the stupid.”
Anon.