Anti-immigration SVP biggest party in Swiss election: Swiss TV

Polling stations closed at noon after only a few hours, as most Swiss vote in advance by post or online.

Switzerland’s far-right anti-immigration party dominated Sunday’s elections, with preliminary numbers showing the populist Swiss People’s Party poised to win a third of the seats in the lower house of Parliament.

More than half a million asylum seekers and migrants fleeing conflict in the Middle East, Asia and Africa have entered the European Union since 2015, according to figures provided by the worldwide Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Swiss People’s Party has long held significant power in both houses of Parliament.

She is the daughter of Switzerland’s perhaps most controversial politician Christoph Blocher, a SVP vice president who served in government from 2004-2007 before being pushed out over his extreme positions and confrontational style.

“The whole migration wave, mass migration towards Europe concerned the people”, SVP leader Toni Brunner told Swiss television.

SVP, which has previously sparked outcry with campaign posters such as one showing one of three white sheep kicking a black sheep off the Swiss flag, has in its national push this year been less provocative, resorting mainly to posters featuring pictures of candidates with the slogan “Stay free”.

Immigration policy has dominated the election discussion in Switzerland, as in many neighboring countries, and more than half of Swiss citizens polled said immigration was the most important issue this election season, in a recent survey conducted by GFS Bern, a Swiss research agency.

The Socialists, Switzerland’s second largest party, are also expected to inch up slightly from the 18.7 per cent of the vote they won four years ago. The SP and the FDP have two member each, with the final two ministries going to the fourth-placed Christian Democrats (CVP) and much smaller Bourgeois Democratic Party (BDP).

But the latest right-wing gains should keep pressure on Bern to take a hard line with Brussels as it seeks to implement the immigration referendum.

That is usually reflected in voter turnout, which has not exceeded 50 percent in legislative elections since 1975.