Swiss Democrats sink into debt

Nearly 20 active members remained. They met on November 12 for the national general meeting in a cafe in Suhr AG. The hard core of the Swiss Democrats (SD) – a once proud right-wing party that provided five national councilors in the 1990s.

A mountain of debt remained. Small party internal documents prove: there is no money in the SD cash register. Lots of money. In mid-November, party accounts showed more than 54,000 francs in debt.
The situation is so precarious that the SD had to fire their last remaining secretary. The party can no longer pay its wages. In the minutes of the meeting, the Swiss Democrats write: “Due to the disastrous financial situation, it is no longer possible to run a professional central secretariat.” As an immediate measure, the party leaders have increased the minimum dues from 20 to 50 francs.

Breakthrough with the Schwarzenbach initiative

The Swiss Democrats have been in a comatose state for some time. In 2007 they lost their last seat in the National Council. In the parliamentary elections three years ago, they got just 0.13 percent of the voters.
That wasn’t always the case. The party has been able to develop its own initiatives for a long time. Their politicians sat in parliaments and in 1991 the SD reached parliamentary group strength in the Federal Palace.

The Swiss Democrats broke through in 1969 with what is probably the most controversial popular initiative in 20th century Swiss history, the Schwarzenbach Initiative, named after its leader. The party demanded – then under the name National Action against the Foreign Invasion of People and Fatherland (NA) – a limitation of the proportion of foreigners to a maximum of ten percent. The population rejected the initiative in 1970. However, with 46 percent yes votes, the Swiss Democrats achieved a surprising success.

“Better times are coming”?

In the years that followed, the party repeatedly caused a sensation with xenophobic campaigns and prominent members were convicted of racism. However, the decline began in the mid-1990s. The share of voters fell steadily and in 2012 the party showed signs of dissolution for the first time. But the SD bounced back – until today.
Is the debtor at the end this time? Co-chairman Christoph Spiess is combative: “I am convinced that the SD will continue to exist, indeed must exist, and maybe better times will come again.”

When asked about his party’s debts, he says: “There is no financial emergency at the moment.” It happened time and time again that the SD was in debt. “We have been able to offset this in the short to medium term with dedicated efforts and extraordinary cash flows from legacies.”

Spiess confirms the party secretary’s resignation: “Unfortunately, we have had to decide to terminate the long-term employment relationship with our central secretary.” In the future, the necessary administrative work would be distributed and carried out on a voluntary basis.

SVP recorded the SD

It is not foreseeable that there will actually be better times for the SD. The SVP has literally swallowed the Swiss Democrats. Besides the largest party in the country, there is little room for a right-wing party. Spiess: “We need to get people to support us as a party instead of chasing right-wing circles and harming our own social interests.”

Moreover, the SD can hardly recruit young people. A large proportion of active party members are senior men. Only in recent months have two of the figureheads passed away: former Bernese national councilor Valentin Oehen and longtime Thurgau party secretary Willy Schmidhauser.