World

Swiss election results confirm nationalist party victory

Swiss election results confirm nationalist party victory

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

The presidents of Switzerland's leading political parties, from left, Toni Brunner right wing SVP, Philipp Mueller liberal FDP, Philipp Mueller the two TV hosts Romaine Morard and Jonas Projer, Christophe Darbellay centrist party CVP, and Christian Levrat socialist party SP, analyze the results of the national elections during a television talk in the parliament building ''Bundeshaus'' in Bern, Switzerland, Sunday, October 18, 2015. Photo: AP

GENEVA: The Swiss federal government has confirmed a dominant performance in legislative elections by a nationalist party that seized on widespread concerns about mass migration in Europe, marking a shift to the political right. Official results released Monday showed that the anti-immigration Swiss People's Party collected 29.4 percent of the vote, an increase of nearly 3 percentage points from the previous election to the lower house of parliament, the National Council, in 2011. The Social Democrats were a distant second, virtually unchanged at 18.8 percent. The pro-business Free Democrats increased by 1.3 percentage points to 16.4 percent. Turnout was 48.4 percent. Analysts cited voter fatigue for that relatively low figure. The result was likely to weigh heavily on National Council voting for the seven-member executive Federal Council on Dec. 9.