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Switzerland: Far-right electoral success

01 September 1999

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The far-right Swiss People's Party, led by Christoph Blocher who in 1997 praised the author of a revisionist book that questions the Holocaust, became Switzerland's second largest political party at parliamentary elections in October. The People's Party, which draws its support from the predominantly German speaking cantons, attained 23% of the vote winning 45 seats in the 200-member lower house. The far-right organisation was defeated by the Social Democrats (51 seats) but finished ahead of the Radical Democrats (42 seats) and the Christian Democrats (35 seats). Blocher heads the right-wing faction of his Party and established himself after running a campaign opposed to Switzerland joining the European Union in 1992. More recently he has cultivated a popularist anti-immigrant position and has vociferously stated his mistrust of foreigners.

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