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Swiss People's PartyThe Swiss People's Party (SVP) (also redirect as Democratic Union of the Centre German: Schweizerische Volkspartei, French: Union Dmocratique du Centre, Italian: Unione Democratica del Centro, Romansh: Uniun Democratica dal Center) is a political party in Switzerland. The SVP is strongest in German-speaking areas of Switzerland and after the 2003 general election is the largest party in the Swiss lower house of parliament with 55 out of 200 seats. Its president is Ueli Maurer. The SVP was formed in 1971 as a merger of the BGB Party (the Farmers', Businessmen's and Citizens' Party) and the Democratic Parties of the cantons of Glarus and Graubnden. The SVP is the right-most of the four co-governing political parties in Switzerland. It is best known for opposing Swiss membership in international organisations such as the EU and UN, and for its campaigning against perceived flaws in the immigration, asylum and penal laws. The party is socially and fiscally conservative (although secular in outlook). It is in favour of traditional family values, tough penal laws, strict immigration limits, deregulation and reduced government spending (except for the areas of domestic security, the military and agricultural support). The SVP supports the Swiss traditions of private gun ownership, armed neutrality and the national militia army and opposes most forms of international security cooperation. The party is often considered divided into a centrist-agrarian wing and an activist-nationalist wing. The latter, based in Zurich, is clearly predominant on the national level and, under the leadership of the popular Rep. Christoph Blocher (now a member of the Federal Council) functioned as a de facto opposition party from circa 1980 to 2003. The former, to which Federal Councillor Samuel Schmid belongs, hails from the Canton of Berne. It stresses the party's responsibilities as a member of the governing coalition and is more oriented towards seeking a consensus with the other parties. At the expense of the major parties of the centre, the SVP has greatly increased its voter support in the last decades and presently holds roughly 25% of the national vote. In the 2003 elections, its ascendancy to the strongest party in Parliament gained it an additional seat in the Federal Government at the expense of the centrist CVP. External link
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