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CVP President Pfister introduces the new logo. Image: keystone
“The Catholic ghetto is not so bad” – political scientist of the new CVP “center”
In the logo of the new party “Die Mitte” only the orange color recalls the CVP origin. CVP could lose in its strongholds, says political scientist Michael Hermann.
The merger with the BDP offers the CVP certain opportunities to get out of the Catholic ghetto. “You have to change something if you want,” says political scientist and geographer Michael Hermann. “The merger is an opportunity to win more votes in the middle.” However, this field “is not very big.”
Hermann sees considerable risks for CVP in this regard. “There is a risk that the CVP will lose in its strongholds, where it is so strongly represented today in executives, in parliaments and in the Council of States.”
The CVP is now the strongest party of the cantonal governments
With 37 government councilors, the CVP is now one of the strongest parties in the cantonal governments. Since Christian Amsler was ousted from the Schaffhausen government last Sunday, the FDP has trailed CVP in this ranking with 36 terms. The FDP is actually in a slump. She lost from the start
2019 41 executive seats. SP and SVP follow in third and fourth place with 32 and 25 government councilors respectively. The “Tages-Anzeiger” made it public.
Political scientist Michael Hermann: “The Catholic ghetto is not so bad.” Photo: trapezoidal
CVP also occupies a prominent place in the Council of States. It represents 13 cantons and ranks first, also ahead of the FDP with 12 mandates, the SP (9 mandates) and the SVP (7 mandates). Between 2008 and 2011, the CVP had 16 mandates from the Council of States. It was not the largest parliamentary group in the Council of States for the last time in 2003: the FDP had 18 terms at the time, the CVP had 15.
Will CVP become a “medium-sized complementary party”?
CVP threatens to lose this position in the Council of States, believes Michael Hermann. It could “become a medium-sized complementary party” in its strongholds. As a party of the confessional minority, it has so far never managed to get out of the Catholic ghetto. Hermann: “This ghetto is not that bad at all. There are more Catholics than Reformed. “
The CVP and the BDP had already tried to get closer in 2015. “Back then it would have been a merger on equal terms,” says Hermann. But the denominational split made it impossible for the CVP and the BDP to merge. Above all, the BDP of the canton of Bern was still heavily reformed. “
In 2015, Hermann said in an interview with Watson that the CVP was leaning to the right, that its liberal social wing was disappearing nationally. In the BDP, however, he observed a squint to the center-left. “Party chair Martin Landolt targets center-left voters and communicates accordingly,” he emphasized about Watson.
“But the BDP is somewhere between the FDP and the CVP. It is a rural party that often advocates structural maintenance, for example in agriculture, and politicizes the army in a very friendly way.
Hermann: “The BDP is a kind of bankruptcy estate”
Today Hermann sees changes in the positioning of the two parties that want to merge. As you said in 2015, the CVP has become more conservative than before. In the meantime, however, this also applies to the BDP, which has sometimes emulated GLP.
“They both also have a fairly rural and conservative electorate.” Only today is the merger between CVP and BDP a “merger of desperation.” Hermann: “The BDP is a kind of bankrupt state and therefore can be obtained cheaply.”
The CDU positioned itself as a reformed party from the beginning
The CVP and its C can only be compared to Germany and Austria to a limited extent. “The CDU reinvented itself after World War II and positioned itself as a reformed party from the start,” says Michael Hermann.
And Austria is a Catholic country. In 2019, nearly five million or 56 percent of the 8.9 million residents were Catholic. The proportion of reformed was only 284,000 or 3.2 percent. CVP President Gerhard Pfister also said in an interview that C did not play any role in CDU / CSU, very different from CVP. (bzbasel.ch)
