... is a federal state and a parliamentary democracy with strong direct-democratic elements. Several national referendums are held every year, and the need to build sufficient support for legislation so that it can pass a referendum has led to a consensus-oriented political process. From 1959 until 2007, the federal government was run by the four major parties: the populist right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), the centre-right Radical Democratic Party (FDP), the centrist Christian Democratic Party (CVP), and the left-wing Social-democratic Party (SP). Following the election in 2003, the distribution of seats in the seven-member cabinet changed for the first time, reflecting a strengthening of the SVP to the detriment of the CVP in the National Council (the lower house of parliament). Then, after the 2007 election, the SVP moved into opposition, in reaction to the failure of parliament to re-elect the SVP's leading personality, Christoph Blocher,...
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