Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland

The Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland (German: Evangelische Volkspartei der Schweiz), Swiss Evangelical Party (French: Parti évangelique suisse, Italian: Partito Evangelico Svizzero), or Evangelical Party of Switzerland (Romansh: Partida evangelica da la Svizra) is a Protestant[5] Christian-democratic political party in Switzerland, active mainly in the Cantons of Bern, Basel-Land, Basel-Stadt, Aargau and Zürich.[6] "Evangelical" translates as evangelisch, the German term for "Protestant", as opposed to "evangelical" as used in Anglo-Saxon Christianity.

Logo of the party before the 100th anniversary redesign (in German)
EVP at district level, 2011
Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland
German nameEvangelische Volkspartei der Schweiz (EVP)
French nameParti évangelique suisse (PEV)
Italian namePartito Evangelico Svizzero (PEV)
Romansh namePartida evangelica da la Svizra (PEV)
PresidentLilian Studer
Founded1919 (P. Christian Protestant)
1994 (Swiss Evangelical P.)
HeadquartersJosefstrasse 32
Case Postale 3467
8021 Zürich
Membership (2015)4,600[1]
IdeologyChristian democracy[2]
Social conservatism[2]
Stewardship theology[3]
Political positionEconomic: Centre[4] to centre-left[4]
Social: Centre-right[4]
European affiliationEuropean Christian Political Movement
Colours  Yellow
  Blue
National Council
3 / 200
Council of States
0 / 46
Cantonal Executives
1 / 154
Cantonal legislatures
39 / 2,609
Website
www.evppev.ch
Swiss Federal Council
Federal Chancellor
Federal Assembly
Council of States (members)
National Council (members)
Voting

The EVP is conservative on euthanasia, abortion, registered partnerships and other typically Christian issues, centrist on economic issues[7][4] and stands rather centre-left on issues of wealth redistribution, education, environmentalism and immigration.[4][8] Among other things, it claims to be "dedicated to protecting the environment out of a sense of responsibility for Creation" and states that "the ethical values of the Bible should be the foundation of society."[3]

The EVP is a member of the European Christian Political Movement (EPCM) and was previously an observer member of the European People's Party (EPP) until 2008. In the Federal Assembly of Switzerland the EVP forms a joint group along with the Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP) and the Christian Social Party of Obwalden (CSP OW).[9]

In February 2023, in a shock result, Thomi Jourdan of Basel-Landschaft's EVP – which has a voter base of less than 4 % in that canton – was elected into the state government, and will join four centrist-leftist-green colleagues. He is the first EVP government member on the state or federal level in Swiss history. This was due to a very active campaign from his side, and a lackluster one of his SVP opponent, national councillor Sandra Sollberger, who only appealed to right-wing voters. She also cited a lack of time which prevented her from campaigning properly.[10]

References
  1. The Swiss Confederation — A Brief Guide. Federal Chancellery. 2015. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  2. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Switzerland". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  3. Mombelli, Armando (July 25, 2015). "Small Parties of Protest and Principle". Swissinfo. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  4. "Appendix A3" (PDF). European Social Survey (9th ed.). 2018. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  5. "Switzerland—Political Parties". European Election Database (EED). Norwegian Centre for Research Data. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
  6. "Switzerland (Cantons)". Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  7. Gerber, Marlène; Mueller, Sean (October 23, 2015). "4 Cool Graphs that Explain Sunday's Swiss Elections". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
  8. The Swiss Confederation – a brief guide (PDF). Switzerland: Swiss Confederation. Federal Chancellery, Communication Support. 2016. p. 18. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
  9. "Parliamentary groups of the 49th legislative period 2011–2015". Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
  10. Künzle, Patrick (2023-02-12). "Fraglich, ob das Wahlergebnis gut für die Baselbieter Politik ist" [Questionable whether this voting result is good for Basel-Landschaft's politics] (in German). Swiss Radio and Television SRF. Retrieved 2023-02-12.


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