2019 Zürich cantonal elections

The 2019 Zürich cantonal elections were held on 24 March 2019, to elect the seven members of the cantonal Executive Council and the 180 members of the Cantonal Council. All five incumbents running were re-elected to the Executive Council, as well as green candidate Martin Neukom and Swiss People's Party candidate Natalie Rickli.

2019 Zürich cantonal elections

24 March 2019

All 7 seats in the Executive Council of Zürich
All 180 seats in the Cantonal Council of Zürich (91 seats needed for a majority)
Executive Council
  First party Second party
 
Ernst Stocker.jpg
Natalierickli.jpg
Party Social Democrats Swiss People's
Elected Mario Fehr
173,231, 83.80%
Ernst Stocker
140,951, 68.19%
Jacqueline Fehr
149,104, 72.13%
Natalie Rickli
116,096, 56.16%

  Third party Fourth party Fifth party
 
Walker-spaeh-2 001 pp Web.jpg
Martin Neukom.jpg
Party Christian Democrats FDP.The Liberals Greens
Elected Sylvia Steiner
135,481, 65.54%
Carmen W. Späh
126,229, 61.06%
Martin Neukom
121,823, 58.93%
Cantonal Council
Party % Seats +/–
Swiss People's 24.46% 45 -9
Social Democrats 19.31% 35 -1
FDP.The Liberals 15.66% 29 -2
Green Liberals 12.91% 23 +9
Greens 11.91% 22 +9
Christian Democrats 4.29% 8 -1
Evangelical People's 4.24% 8 0
Alternative List 3.15% 6 +1
Federal Democrats 2.27% 4 -1

The election was an upset for the left-wing and green parties. The Green Party re-gained an executive councilor as Neukom was elected and both social-democratic candidates topped the polls, although the right-of-center parties maintained a majority in the Executive Council. Both the Greens and Green-Liberals made important gains in the Cantonal Council, ending the right-of-center parties' overall majority.

Electoral system

Executive Council

The Executive Council contains 7 members elected using a two-round majoritarian system. In the first round, electors have up to seven votes and the 7 most-voted candidates reaching an overall majority (>50%) are elected. If seats remain to be filled, a runoff is held where electors have as many votes as seats remaining, and the candidates with the most votes (simple plurality) are elected.

Cantonal Council

The Cantonal Council is elected using open-list proportional representation, with canton-wide apportionment of seats and allocation into 18 constituencies (biproportional apportionment). In each constituency, voters have as many votes as there are seats to fill (panachage is permitted); these votes each count both for the candidate and for the list they stand in. These votes counts are divided by the seats count to give fictional electors counts which can be summed up fairly throughout the canton.

Using the fictional electors counts, each party above the threshold (reaching 5% in at least one constituency) is apportioned seats canton-wide, which are then shared among their constituency lists. In each constituency list, the seats are attributed to the candidates reaching the most votes.

Number of seats by constituency
Constituency Seats Change
IZürich city districts 1 & 25+1
IIZürich city districts 3 & 912=
IIIZürich city districts 4 & 55=
IVZürich city districts 6 & 109=
VZürich city districts 7 & 86=
VIZürich city districts 11 & 1212=
VIIDietikon11=
VIIIAffoltern6=
IXHorgen15=
XMeilen12−1
XIHinwil11−1
XIIUster16=
XIIIPfäffikon7=
XIVWinterthur city13=
XVWinterthur land7=
XVIAndelfingen4=
XVIIBülach18+1
XVIIIDielsdorf11=

Candidates

Executive Council

Five of the seven incumbents ran for re-election: Mario Fehr (SP), Ernst Stocker (SVP), Sylvia Steiner (DM), Carmen Walker Späh (FDP), and Jacqueline Fehr (SP).

Mario Fehr was narrowly re-nominated by his party but lost support from both the Greens and the Alternative Left. The Green Party aimed to re-gain their seat lost in 2015 and fielded cantonal councilor Martin Neukom; they recommended Alternative List candidate Walter Angst on their ticket instead of Fehr.

Incumbent councilor Thomas Heiniger (FDP) announced his retirement in early 2018, followed by Markus Kägi (SVP). The FDP selected cantonal council group leader Thomas Vogel, who had failed to be nominated against Carmen Walker Späh in 2015, to succeed Heiniger. The SVP chose national councilor Natalie Rickli to replace Kägi, by a wide margin in the internal vote after misogynist campaign emails from her opponent Christian Lucek were leaked to the media. The FDP, SVP, and CVP ran together informally again as the "Bourgeois Alliance for the Executive Council", highlighting their long-standing control of the cantonal executive, although with separate programs.[1][2]

Jörg Mäder ran for the green-liberals, Hanspeter Hugentobler for the EVP, and Rosmarie Quadranti was the BDP candidate. The three "centrist" parties held a press conference together, with different programs but highlighting their ability to compromise; media speculated that they would unite behind a single candidate in the case of a runoff.[1]

Cantonal Council

The table below lists contesting parties represented in the Cantonal Council before the election.

Name Ideology 2015 result
Votes (%) Seats
SVP Swiss People's Party
Schweizerische Volkspartei
National conservatism
Right-wing populism
30.0%
54 / 180
SP Social Democratic Party
Sozialdemokratische Partei
Social democracy
Democratic socialism
19.7%
36 / 180
FDP FDP.The Liberals
FDP.Die Liberalen
Classical liberalism
Conservative liberalism
17.3%
31 / 180
GLP Green Liberal Party
Grünliberale Partei
Green liberalism
Social liberalism
7.6%
14 / 180
GPS Green Party
Grüne Partei
Green politics
Progressivism
7.2%
13 / 180
CVP Christian Democratic People's Party
Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei
Christian democracy
Social conservatism
4.9%
9 / 180
EVP Evangelical People's Party
Evangelische Volkspartei
Christian democracy
Social conservatism
4.3%
8 / 180
AL Alternative List
Alternative Liste
Socialism 3.0%
5 / 180
EDU Federal Democratic Union
Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union
National conservatism 2.7%
5 / 180
BDP Conservative Democratic Party
Bürgerlich-Demokratische Partei
Christian democracy
Social conservatism
2.6%
5 / 180

The Party of Labour, Die Guten, and Helvida also contested this election. A total of 13 parties contested this election, as many as in 2015, representing a total of 1734 candidates.

During the previous legislature, the SVP and FDP formed a minority coalition to legislate, working with either the CVP, GLP, BDP, or EDU to pass legislation, but the GLP and EVP progressively distanced themselves from the alliance. The SP and Greens challenged several policies in referendums; as a result the bourgeois majority mainly worked on budgetary issues with few work on other policies, leading the SP to speak of a "lost legislature"[3]

Campaign

The "bourgeois alliance" of SVP, FDP, and CVP ran a joint campaign for the Executive Council. Similar alliances had already existed in the canton and city of Zürich in past elections.[2] However, an SVP leaflet targeting the FDP two weeks before the election led to speculation about a potential division in the electorate.[4][5]

Mario Fehr's renomination by the socialists was controversial especially to the Young Socialists due to his hardline stance on asylum policy; both the Greens and the Alternative left refused to endorse Fehr. These conflicts around Mario Fehr caused the leftist parties to enter this election disunited, which was seen as a risk for the greens despite Fehr's strong personal popularity.[1][6]

Climate became a dominant campaign issue due to the ongoing climate strikes. Greens and Green-liberals were seen as most likely to gain from this focus, while the FDP did not gain from their own change-of-course in climate policy. Climate issues also overshadowed the SVP's core issues, immigration and asylum policy, leading them to expect further losses after a poor performance in the 2018 local elections. The socialists' ambiguous stance on the EU-Switzerland framework agreement and the resulting defection of former national councilor Chantal Galladé to the green-liberals also led them to lost momentum despite their successful results in the local elections.[4][5]

Opinion polls

Executive Council

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size
M. Fehr
SP
Stocker
SVP
Späh
FDP
Steiner
CVP
J. Fehr
SP
Rickli
SVP
Vogel
FDP
Neukom
GPS
Mäder
glp
Quadranti
BDP
Angst
AL
Hugentobler
EVP
Egli
EDU
Sotomo 2 Mar 2019  ? 65 54 54 52 49 44 42 38 30 24 19 10 6
Sotomo 19 Jan 2019  ? 65.8 57.5 56.0 53.6 49.5 50.0 40.3 35.0 28.4 23.0 17.9 7.5 4.7

Cantonal Council

Polling firm Fieldwork date Sample
size
SVP SP FDP glp GPS CVP EVP AL EDU BDP Others Lead
Sotomo 2 Mar 2019  ? 28.2 18.5 17.7 10.0 9.3 4.7 4.0 2.9 2.4 1.9 0.4 9.7
2015 election 12 Apr 2015 30.0 19.7 17.3 7.6 7.2 4.9 4.3 3.0 2.7 2.6 3.3 10.3

Results

Executive Council

Note: percentages here are calculated based on the amount of valid votes (excluding blank and invalid votes) so that the absolute majority is at exactly 50%, but may result in candidates reaching over 100% of the valid votes.

Results of the 2019 Zürich Executive Council election
Candidate Party Votes  %
Mario Fehr SP 173,231 83.80
Jacqueline Fehr SP 149,104 72.13
Ernst Stocker SVP 140,951 68.19
Sylvia Steiner CVP 135,481 65.54
Carmen Walker Späh FDP 126,229 61.06
Martin Neukom Grüne 121,823 58.93
Natalie Rickli SVP 116,096 56.16
Thomas Vogel FDP 109,624 53.03
Jörg Mäder GLP 93,782 45.37
Walter Angst AL 81,754 39.55
Rosmarie Quadranti BDP 52,677 25.48
Hanspeter Hugentobler EVP 41,860 20.25
Hans Egli EDU 23,702 11.47
Jan Linhart Ind. 7,265 3.51
Scattered votes 73,417 35.52
Total 1,272,428 64.09
Blank and invalid votes 713,080 35.91
Total votes 1,985,508
Valid ballots 283,644 97.40
Invalid ballots 7,572 2.60
Total ballots 291,216
Registered voters/Turnout 910,776 31.97
Source: [7]

This election was an upset for the left-of-center parties. The two social-democratic candidates topped the polls with Mario Fehr exceeding 83%, and Martin Neukom was elected after unexpectedly placing sixth. Both SVP candidates dropped below 70% for the first time since 2007, white the FDP scored historically low and lost one of their two seats for the first time as Thomas Vogel failed to make the top-7. Sylvia Steiner placed fourth as her vote share remained constant; four other candidates finished above 20%.[1][8]

As 8 candidates reached a majority, no runoff was held. The top-5 alliance lost one of their seats but retained a majority with four councilors out of seven, although with the CVP needed compared to the previous elections.

Results by district

Vote share of each candidate by district
District Angst
AL
Egli
EDU
J. Fehr
SP
M. Fehr
SP
Huge.
EVP
Linh.
Ind.
Mäder
GLP
Neuk.
GPS
Quad.
BDP
Rick.
SVP
Späh
FDP
Stei.
CVP
Stoc.
SVP
Vogel
FDP
Scattered
Affoltern 32.3 13.1 71.1 83.2 19.8 3.2 44.2 54.4 24.3 60.0 63.1 68.8 74.5 53.7 34.3
Andelfingen 24.8 14.9 64.1 79.6 19.5 2.4 39.3 49.0 26.7 74.5 63.4 66.0 85.9 55.2 34.9
Bülach 28.0 17.0 62.4 79.5 21.1 2.4 44.1 45.1 24.4 67.1 65.3 69.9 77.8 56.2 39.8
Dielsdorf 19.7 27.4 54.2 72.4 20.0 2.0 41.2 41.1 24.9 75.0 68.4 72.9 85.3 59.8 35.8
Dietikon 27.6 9.9 58.8 78.9 15.9 2.0 40.7 45.9 21.3 68.4 69.5 78.2 79.5 61.3 42.2
Hinwil 28.7 18.1 62 77 27.2 2.6 38.8 48.5 27.8 66.4 64.5 65.7 78.1 55.8 38.9
Horgen 29.9 9.7 61.9 82.9 22.3 1.9 42.8 51.1 21.2 61.1 65.5 73.0 81.3 59.5 35.9
Meilen 24.3 9.4 57.0 81.5 16.4 2.6 43.5 45.7 21.4 64.3 74.7 75.3 80.3 69.2 34.3
Pfäffikon 23.1 16.7 61.5 77.8 37.0 2.8 40.1 47.4 27.9 66.0 61.9 65.0 75.8 60.6 36.3
Uster 31.7 11.0 68.1 81.1 19.8 2.9 46.4 52.6 33.1 58.5 63.7 66.3 70.1 55.1 39.6
Winterthur 40.5 10.6 78.4 86.0 24.1 3.6 45.1 64.9 24.4 55.4 55.2 60.9 63.5 47.2 40.2
Zürich 66.7 5.8 92.3 92.1 15.2 5.9 51.8 80.7 26.5 36.2 51.7 56.8 47.4 42.1 29.0
Total 39.5 11.5 72.1 83.8 20.3 3.5 45.4 58.9 25.5 56.2 61.1 65.5 68.2 53.0 35.5

Cantonal Council

Results of the 2019 Zürich Cantonal Council election
PartyVotes%+/–Seats+/–
Swiss People's Party74,56324.46−5.5645−9
Social Democratic Party58,87019.31−0.3635−1
FDP.The Liberals47,74715.66−1.6629−2
Green Liberal Party39,34212.91+5.2723+9
Green Party36,30911.91+4.6922+9
Christian Democratic People's Party13,0864.29−0.598−1
Evangelical People's Party12,9284.24−0.038±0
Alternative List9,5933.15+0.176+1
Federal Democratic Union6,9262.27−0.364−1
Conservative Democratic Party4,6551.53−1.090−5
Labour Party5300.17New0New
Die Guten2600.09New0New
Helvida120.00New0New
Total304,821100.00180
Valid votes304,81899.81
Invalid/blank votes5660.19
Total votes305,384100.00
Registered voters/turnout910,77633.53
Source: wahlen.zh.ch[9]

This election continued the realignment in Swiss politics, as the Green-Liberals and Greens together gained ten points and 18 seats. This was even more than predicted in the polls, and would later be described as a "green wave".[10][11][12]

The SVP dropped to their lowest level since 1995, and the BDP lost all their seats due to missing the threshold. This election was a debacle for the bourgeois parties:[8] the FDP, SVP, and CVP together lost 12 seats in total and their incumbent overall majority.

As a result of this election, the right-of-center parties totaled 86 seats and the social democrats and greens added up to 57 seats; the Tages-Anzeiger described the green-liberals and their 23 seats as kingmakers in the newly-elected cantonal council.[1]

Results by contituency

Number of seats and share of votes for each party by constituency
Constituency SVPSPFDPGLPGPSCVPEVPALEDU Total
seats
SVPSPFDPGLPGPSCVPEVPALEDUBDPPdA
I Zürich City 1 & 2 1111100005 13.125.317.113.718.24.01.45.60.50.5
II Zürich City 3 & 9 23112102012 14.229.810.012.117.24.22.48.10.20.40.7
III Zürich City 4 & 5 0201100105 6.631.68.314.717.91.40.815.70.31.3
IV Zürich City 6 & 10 1311200109 11.628.414.214.016.72.71.98.10.30.80.5
V Zürich City 7 & 8 1121100006 12.422.423.714.414.94.62.14.20.30.4
VI Zürich City 11 & 12 23122101012 19.227.111.012.713.94.24.04.51.11.00.6
VII Dietikon 42211100011 29.418.717.412.56.28.23.31.41.31.6
XIII Affoltern 1111101006 26.617.815.114.210.82.88.60.92.30.9
IX Horgen 43321110015 24.116.621.211.710.17.44.51.41.41.6
X Meilen 32321100012 27.014.225.313.39.24.42.51.11.91.1
XI Hinwil 31211110111 30.312.813.410.012.15.85.71.56.22.1
XII Uster 43222110116 26.817.014.915.010.54.93.41.62.43.4
XIII Pfäffikon 2111101007 31.113.913.911.49.52.79.41.24.82.0
XIV Winterthur City 23222011013 18.824.110.714.515.13.85.54.01.81.6
XV Winterthur Land 2111101007 35.111.614.213.99.43.08.00.62.71.4
XVI Andelfingen 2110000004 37.014.315.88.69.81.64.51.02.74.7
XVII Bülach 63321110118 31.815.815.912.28.23.55.11.33.82.2
XVIII Dielsdorf 51211000111 39.513.013.011.68.83.62.70.85.21.7
Total45352923228864180 24.519.315.712.911.94.34.23.22.31.50.2

Aftermath

As in 2015, this election was a bellwether for the federal election in october, as the Green and Green-Liberal gains would as expected be replicated on a federal scale.[13]

Cantonal departments

Attribution of the departments of the Cantonal administration of Zürich for 2019
Department Head before Head after
Department of Justice and Home Affairs Jacqueline Fehr
Department of Finance Ernst Stocker
Department of Health Thomas Heiniger Natalie Rickli
Building Department Markus Kägi Martin Neukom
Department of Security Mario Fehr
Department for Economic Affairs Carmen Walker Späh
Department of Education Silvia Steiner

References

  1. Heidelberger, Anja. "Kantonsratswahlen 2019 Zürich". Année politique Suisse. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  2. Zürcher, Heinz. "Zürich - Neuer Name, bewährtes Rezept: «Bürgerliches Bündnis» bestreitet gemeinsam den Wahlkampf". Limmattaler Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  3. "Die verlorene Legislatur". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  4. "Wahlen im Kanton Zürich: Kassieren SVP und SP eine Schlappe?". watson.ch (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  5. Unternährer, Pascal (2019-03-24). "n Kürze: Das steht bei den Zürcher Wahlen auf dem Spiel". Tages-Anzeiger. Archived from the original on 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  6. "Mario Fehr verteidigt sich am SP-Showdown in Zürich: «Ich bin kein Asyl-Hardliner»". watson.ch (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-07.
  7. "Regierungsratswahlen 2015". www.wahlen.zh.ch. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  8. "So hat der Kanton Zürich gewählt". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  9. "Wahlen 2019". www.wahlen.zh.ch. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  10. "Zürcher Kantonsratswahlen - Linker, grüner, weiblicher: das neue Zürcher Parlament". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) (in German). 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  11. Kleck, Doris. "Wahlen ZH - Eine grüne Welle hat Zürich überrollt". Aargauer Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  12. Scharrer, Matthias. "Die Wahlanalyse - Was der Ausgang der Wahlen für die Zürcher Politik bedeutet". Limmattaler Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  13. "Der Grünrutsch von Zürich und seine Folgen für die Nationalratswahlen". watson.ch (in German). Retrieved 2023-01-05.
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