Switzerland – Greens lose, Greens win / Perte verte, victoire verte

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Suisse – Les nationalistes et les Grünen sont les perdants des élections féderales de hier, qui mettent un fin à la polarisation et font du pays, après le Dannemark, le 2me en Europe à stopper la montée du populisme xénophobe.

Switzerland – Nationalists and Grünen are the losers of yesterday’s federal Parliament elections, which put a temporary end to polarisation and made the country the second in Europe, after Denmark, to put an end to the rise of xenophobic populism.

The Grünen lost 5 seats, watching the post-Fukushima bonus pass to the Green Liberal Party. Founded in 2004 as an offshoot of the Zürich Grünen, the Green Liberals denounce nuclear energy just like the Grünen. But whereas the latter have a clear left-wing economic and financial agenda, the Green Liberals are close to liberalism. In 2007 they won their first 3 seats in the national Parliament. Yesterday they jumped to 12, only 3 less than the former mother party.

Die Grünen are “disappointed about today’s election result”, they wrote on their site. They “will thoroughly analyse the causes” and call upon the GLP and the BNP, the other winning party, to “ensure that the country is conducted through the current crisis in an environmentally and socially sustainable way”.