Switzerland: Political developments and data for 2018

In 2018, Switzerland's political life, and especially the public debate, was mainly determined by issues discussed in the context of the 10 national direct‐democratic decisions. Moreover, a year before the next national elections, six cantons held their cantonal elections, which continued a pattern that has been emerging since the last national elections in 2015: whereas the FDP – The Liberals (FDP/PLR), the Social Democratic Party (SPS/PSS) and the Green parties are among the winners of these cantonal elections, the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), the Christian Democrats (CVP/PDC) and the Conservative Democratic Party (BDP/PBD) have lost seats in many cantons. Finally, two resignations from the Federal Council led to a historic election of two women to take the empty seats.