Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland

Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland

*Evangelische Volkspartei der Schweiz* (German)

*Parti évangelique suisse* (French)

*Partito Evangelico Svizzero* (Italian)

*Partida evangelica da la Svizra* (Romansh)
Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland Evangelische Volkspartei der Schweiz (German); Parti évangelique suisse (French); Partito Evangelico Svizzero (Italian); Partida evangelica da la Svizra (Romansh);
Abbreviation	EVP; PEV;
President	Lilian Studer
Founded	1919; 105 years ago; 1994; 30 years ago;
Headquarters	Josefstrasse 32, Case Postale 3467; 8021 Zürich, Zürich Canton
Membership (2023)	4,400
Ideology	Christian democracy; Social conservatism; Stewardship theology;
Political position	Economic:; Centre to centre-left; Social:; Centre-right;
Religion	Christianity (Protestant)
European affiliation	European Christian Political Movement
Colours	Yellow; Blue;
National Council	2 / 200
Council of States	0 / 46
Cantonal Executives	1 / 154
Cantonal Legislatures	42 / 2,544
Website
	www.evppev.ch
	Politics of Switzerland; Political parties; Elections;

The Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland (German: Evangelische Volkspartei der Schweiz, EVP), Swiss Evangelical Party (French: Parti évangelique suisse, PEV; Italian: Partito Evangelico Svizzero, PEV), or Evangelical Party of Switzerland (Romansh: Partida evangelica da la Svizra, PEV) is a Protestant^[7] Christian-democratic political party in Switzerland, active mainly in the Cantons of Bern, Basel-Land, Basel-Stadt, Aargau and Zürich.^[8] "Evangelical" translates as evangelisch, the German term for "Protestant", as opposed to "evangelical" as used in Anglo-Saxon Christianity.

The EVP is conservative on euthanasia, abortion, registered partnerships and other typically Christian issues, centrist on economic issues^[9]^[5] and stands rather centre-left on issues of wealth redistribution, education, environmentalism and immigration.^[5]^[6] 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."^[4]

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).^[10]

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.^[11]

Election results

National Council

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
1919	6,031	0.81 (#8)	1 / 200	New
1922	6,036	0.86 (#9)	1 / 200	0
1925	6,888	0.93 (#8)	1 / 200	0
1928	5,618	0.70 (#8)	1 / 200	0
1931	8,454	0.98 (#8)	1 / 200	0
1935	6,780	0.74 (#12)	1 / 200	0
1939	5,726	0.93 (#11)	0 / 200	1
1943	3,627	0.41 (#10)	1 / 200	1
1947	9,072	0.94 (#9)	1 / 200	0
1951	9,559	0.99 (#9)	1 / 200	0
1955	10,581	1.08 (#9)	1 / 200	0
1959	14,038	1.43 (#9)	2 / 200	1
1963	15,690	1.63 (#9)	2 / 200	0
1967	15,728	1.58 (#8)	3 / 200	1
1971	42,778	2.15 (#10)	3 / 200	0
1975	37,959	1.97 (#10)	3 / 200	0
1979	40,744	2.22 (#7)	3 / 200	0
1983	40,837	2.08 (#9)	3 / 200	0
1987	37,265	1.93 (#11)	3 / 200	0
1991	38,681	1.89 (#10)	3 / 200	0
1995	34,071	1.79 (#10)	2 / 200	1
1999	35,679	1.83 (#8)	3 / 200	1
2003	47,838	2.28 (#6)	3 / 200	0
2007	56,361	2.42 (#6)	2 / 200	1
2011	48,789	2.00 (#8)	2 / 200	0
2015	47,355	1.90 (#8)	2 / 200	0
2019	50,317	2.08 (#8)	3 / 200	1
2023	49,828	1.95 (#7)	2 / 200	1

Notes

^ P. Christian Protestant
^ Swiss Evangelical P.
^ Decrease in membership from 4,600 (2015)^[1] to 4,400 (2023).^[2]

References

^ The Swiss Confederation — A Brief Guide. Federal Chancellery. 2015. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
^ "Die zehn grössten Parteien in Kürze" [The ten largest parties in brief]. Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (in German). Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. 28 September 2023. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023.
^ ^a ^b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Switzerland". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
^ ^a ^b Mombelli, Armando (July 25, 2015). "Small Parties of Protest and Principle". Swissinfo. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "Appendix A3" (PDF). European Social Survey (9th ed.). 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 December 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
^ ^a ^b "The Swiss Confederation: A Brief Guide". bk.admin.ch (38th ed.). Federal Chancellery. February 2016. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016.
^ "Switzerland—Political Parties". European Election Database (EED). Norwegian Centre for Research Data. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
^ "Switzerland (Cantons)". Archived from the original on November 3, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
^ Gerber, Marlène; Mueller, Sean (October 23, 2015). "4 Cool Graphs that Explain Sunday's Swiss Elections". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
^ "Parliamentary groups of the 49th legislative period 2011–2015". Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
^ 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.