The new parliament is to be elected on 22 October, while the new heads of state will be elected on 12 December. The 2023 elections will show whether the 2019 green wave can be sustained.
If the green party can repeat the success of the last elections, it will be hard for the other parties to deny it a seat in the Federal Council, the seven-member government, in which traditionally all large parties are represented. In this case, however, one of the other parties will have to lose a seat.
To defend its two seats eyed by the greens, the centre-right liberal party is likely to forge an alliance with the nationalist-populist Swiss People’s Party and instead offer up one of the two Social-Democratic seats, which would split the power of the political left.
Since the formerly pro-European liberal party relies on the support of the Swiss nationalists, whose two seats are likely to remain uncontested, not much movement can be expected towards resolving the outstanding issues between Switzerland and the EU during 2023.
Source: euractiv.com
