Switzerland Moves to the Centre

In yesterday's federal election in Switzerland, smaller, more moderate parties took votes from the larger, more polarizing parties.  However, that didn't prevent the conservative Swiss People's Party from winning the plurality.  Here are the results:

• Toni Brunner (Swiss People's Party - conservatism): 26.6% - 54 seats (down 2.4% and 8 seats from 2007)
• Christian Levrat (Social Democrats - social democracy): 18.7% - 46 seats (down 0.9% and up 3 seats from 2007)
• Fulvio Pelli (FDP. The Liberals - classical liberalism): 15.1% -  31 seats (down 2.5% and 5 seats from 2007)
• Christophe Darbellay (Christian Democrats - Christian democracy): 12.3% - 28 seats (down 2.2% and 3 seats from 2007)
• Ueli Leuenberger (Green Party - green politics and progressivism): 8.4% - 15 seats (down 1.2% and 5 seats from 2007)
• Martin Bäumle (Green Liberals - green politics and classical liberalism): 5.4% - 12 seats (up 4.0% and 9 seats from 2007)
• Hans Grunder (Conservative Democrats - conservatism and classical liberalism): 5.4% - 9 seats (did not exist in 2007)
• Heiner Studer (Evangelical People's Party - Christian democracy and social conservatism): 2.0% - 2 seats (down 0.4% and no change in seats from 2007)
• Giuliano Bignasca (Ticino League - right-wing populism and national conservatism): 0.8% - 2 seats (up 0.2% and 1 seat from 2007)

The re-election of the Swiss People's Party seems to indicate that immigration is still a major issue, and hopefully Switzerland can make some more progress in fighting the threat of the spread of Islam and Sharia law.  And, despite this ugly incident, Switzerland yet again demonstrates a level of sanity that is quite rare in Europe (Switzerland is not a member of European Union and it has relatively low taxes).  Furthermore, despite a drop in support for the Swiss People's Party, the leftist Social Democrats and Green Party both also received lowered support.  Most of the parties that gained support are centre to centre-right (particularly the Conservative Democrats).  Let's hope the common sense of the Swiss spreads to other European countries (which is unlikely).