Grand Council of Bern

Before the 2010 election, Bern's Grand Council had six large parties: three on the right, two on the left, and one in the centre. It also has a range of smaller parties, due to the absence of an election threshold in the canton.

The Grand Council (German: Grosser Rat, French: Grand conseil) is the parliament of the Swiss canton of Bern.

It consists of 160 members (as of 2006) elected by proportional representation for a four-year term of office. The French-speaking part of the canton, the Bernese Jura (districts of Courtelary, La Neuveville and Moutier) has 12 seats guaranteed, and 3 seats are guaranteed for the French-speaking minority of the bilingual district of Biel/Bienne.

Composition

The last election was held on 27 March 2010, and resulted in a victory for the Swiss People's Party (SVP). However, whilst they maintained their plurality position, the main gainers were the Conservative Democratic Party, who gained eight seats on their pre-election position, having split from the SVP since the 2006 election. The Social Democratic Party and FDP.The Liberals both lost considerable ground.

 Summary of the 28 March 2010 Bern Grand Council election results
Party Ideology Vote % Vote % ± Seats Seats ±
Swiss People's Party National conservatism 26.62 –0.80 44 –3
Social Democratic Party Social democracy 18.86 –5.17 35 –7
Conservative Democratic Party Conservatism 16.03 N/A 25 N/A
FDP.The Liberals Classical liberalism 10.34 –6.04 17 –9
Green Party Green politics 10.10 –2.79 16 –3
Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland Christian democracy 5.90 –1.45 10 –3
Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland Christian right 4.40 –0.38 5 –1
Green Liberal Party Green liberalism 4.07 N/A 4 N/A
Autonomous Socialist Party of South Jura Separatism – Social democracy 1.04 –0.25 3 ±0
Christian Democratic People's Party Christian democracy 1.16 –0.60 1 ±0
Swiss Democrats Nationalism 0.41 –1.77 0 –1
Entente PDC of Jura South / Liberal Party of Jura Separatism – Christian democracy – Classical liberalism 0.24 –0.10 0 –1
Others 0.83 –0.74 0 –1
Total 160 –
Source: Canton of Berne

References

External links

All links are in German and French, unless otherwise noted.