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Swiss People's Party pulls out of government

The right-wing Swiss People's Party withdrew from Switzerland's coalition government yesterday following the ousting from the Cabinet on Wednesday of leading figure Christoph Blocher.

The move ends half a century of consensus government in Switzerland which had seen Cabinet ministers selected from among all four of the country's leading parties.

Blocher's dismissal from the seven-member executive was confirmed yesterday when Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, a more moderate People's Party rival, accepted parliament's nomination for her to take Blocher's place as justice minister.

Caspar Baader, the head of the People's Party's parliamentary faction immediately told parliament that the party would go into opposition and would no longer recognize Widmer-Schlumpf or fellow People's Party minister Samuel Schmid.

Blocher was kicked out of the government in a coup that plunged Swiss politics into uncertainty.

Despite leading his anti-immigrant People's Party to a second general election victory seven weeks ago, Blocher, a billionaire businessman and justice minister in the outgoing government, was caught napping by a deft piece of overnight political maneuvering by Social Democrats and Christian Democrats who blocked his path to Cabinet by persuading a party colleague to stand against him.

The defeat for Blocher changed the rules of a normally staid and predictable political culture, and left his party pledging to go into opposition rather than take part in the coalition government that invariably rules Switzerland.

The defeat was a result of political plotting by Social Democrats and Christian Democrats who vowed to oppose Blocher, but not his party, and sprang a surprise by backing one of Blocher's party colleagues for his Cabinet seat.

Under the decentralized Swiss system the federal government in Berne comprises a mere seven ministers, one of whom serves a one-year term as federal president, equivalent to prime minister.

The seats are allocated by parliamentary voting on each candidate from four parties. Blocher's People's Party is entitled to two seats in the Cabinet. His party took 29 percent of the vote in October's general election, lengthening its lead from 2003.
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