What the SVP gets from the FDP and why Samira Marti should tremble: this is how list connections influence the elections

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Switzerland votes on October 22. List connections will again be an important topic in this year’s elections. Blick explains when they can be useful for parties and who benefits from them.

To increase their chances of winning additional seats in the National Council, parties enter into list alliances. This refers to a merger of two or more party lists. Parties can forge such alliances in cantons with at least two seats in the National Council.

Each party wants to get as many votes as possible in its own camp during elections. Fair: In proportional elections, such as elections for the National Council, a seat is tied to a certain percentage of the votes.

List connections are considered one voting list. This means that individual parties lose fewer votes, which is not enough to win their own seats. They can have their remaining votes counted together and, if necessary, obtain an extra seat together (remaining mandates). Only then will the seats be distributed within the individual party lists.

A calculation example: In canton X, 200 votes are needed for a seat in the National Council. Party A received 440 votes and won 2 seats. The 40 extra votes expire. Because: they are not enough for a third seat.

But if party A ends up on a list with party B – which has 380 votes and therefore gains one seat – this would give a total of 820 votes and 4 seats. Together, the two parties won one more seat than if they had fought separately.

Which party gets the extra seat is ultimately calculated on the basis of a quotient based on the number of votes and seats. In the current example, party B would have benefited from the list connection and obtained a second seat.

How great the impact of the connections can be is evident from the 2019 elections. At that time, the center parties in particular benefited from list connections. These alliances allowed the Green Liberals (GLP), CVP (now Die Mitte) and EVP to gain eight additional seats. The GLP alone won five of the nine new seats thanks to list connections. The SVP had to give up four, namely one each in the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Bern, Lucerne and Zurich.

The People’s Party lagged behind. It lost seven seats in the last federal election due to a lack of alliances in the National Council. Three SVP national council members even had to vacate their seats. A mistake that the party does not want to make again this year.

In most cases, parties that are politically close to each other unite in list associations. So, for example, the SP and the Greens. They are doing this for the October elections in 20 cantons. The GLP is also included in five cantons.

The SVP has also learned from the mistakes of the last elections. That is why she sought proximity to liberalism this time. The FDP and SVP form list alliances in nine cantons. It is difficult to estimate which party this will help more. But one thing is clear: the bourgeois parties now also form a bloc, as the red-green coalition traditionally does. The SVP is also entering into a “marriage of convenience” with the Corona skeptics from Mass-voll in the cantons of Solothurn and Lucerne.

The center also makes such connections. Depending on the canton, with the FDP or the GLP. A total of 80 list connections have been realized for the October 22 elections. In 2019 there were 81.

In the canton of Basel-Landschaft, for example. Seven seats in the National Council will be occupied there, all previous ones (two SVP, two SP, one for each FDP, Center and Greens) will sit again. For the first time, the GLP, which made strong gains in the cantonal elections in February, has a chance of winning a seat in Bern.

If she succeeds, the center and its former state councilor Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter (59) would have to give up their seats. It is also possible (although quite unlikely) that the GLP will gain seats at the expense of the SP. A result that Tinder faces: in this case, Samira Marti (29), who recently became co-chair of the federal parliamentary SP faction, would have to give up her seat.

Source:Blick