No other party in Switzerland is as influenced by its president as the former CVP. The center itself is facing a great test.
Gerhard Pfister set the first political milestone for 2025 on Monday with his resignation.
Peter Schneider / Keystone
Gerhard Pfister is the most eloquent of all party chairmen – and the most agile. Only a few years ago, he wanted to make the CVP of the time a party with Western values: Christianity, this celestial anchor point of politicization, would have played a key role in this regard.
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But the idea failed and Pfister changed direction. With Martin Landolt, then president of the BDP, he initiated the merger of the two parties. The CVP and BDP became the center. Zuger’s political genius was then revealed. Even in the Christian-conservative countries of central Switzerland, the cantonal parties abandoned the C. They left the CVP like an old skin and became the center.
With his friendly general secretary, Gianna Luzio, Pfister then operated all the cogs of the political machinery. With the name CVP, it also left behind the pretension of being a government party committed to concordance which, together with other parties, guarantees solutions that can reach the majority.
Pfister learned from the SVP how to focus on two or three important issues and use polarization to win votes, and from there he became highly polarized. The SVP is generally interested in immigration and security, while the center discovers social populism. Of course, Pfister knows that ideas such as higher pensions for married couples put undue pressure on public finances. But he decided long ago that the center couldn’t worry about funding problems if it wanted to assert itself. Please let the other parties take care of the money – especially the FDP, which he declared as his natural enemy before the 2023 national elections.
Few people in Switzerland understand the functioning of political Switzerland as well as Pfister. And even fewer are so quick to set aside their own beliefs when those of others are more useful to political success.
If the unification of the center and the BDP was a success, it is above all thanks to Pfister and his agility. He took the best parts of two discontinued products and put them together to create a new successor product that was on-trend.
Pfister and Luzio did it so well that they could afford to do things that regularly plunge a party like the FDP into self-destruction: entering into list alliances with the SVP, for example, or flip-flopping. bold political face.
It’s no secret: Pfister would have liked to become a federal councilor and probably still would like to become one. Viola Amherd will soon resign from her post as federal councilor. Pfister is getting ready. Whether he is actually elected or not is of no tactical importance. From now on, all speculation about the center seat and the second FDP seat (which the center would like to have) will be accompanied by the name of Gerhard Pfister. He projects his shadow before him; for the next replacement elections for the Federal Council. Smart, spot-on, faster than the competition – typical Pfister.
The big test remains to come for the environment. Because apart from Gerhard Pfister, only a few names are known throughout the country. The most important task of Pfister’s successor will therefore be to give the center a sort of identity, a DNA and a clear political line. Because only Gerhard Pfister can preside over a multi-part approximation, but act as if it were a larger whole.
