Chaired by Marcel Dettling , it is the largest party in the Federal Assembly , with 62 members of the National Council [ 16 ] and 6 of the Council of States. This changed however during the s, when the party underwent deep structural and ideological changes under the influence of Christoph Blocher ; the SVP then became the strongest party in Switzerland by the s.
In line with the changes fostered by Blocher, the party started to focus increasingly on issues such as Euroscepticism [ 18 ] and opposition to mass immigration.
As of [update] , the party is the largest in the National Council with 62 seats. It has six seats in the Council of States. The early origins of the SVP go back to the late s, when numerous cantonal farmers' parties were founded in agrarian , Protestant , German-speaking parts of Switzerland. While the Free Democratic Party had earlier been a popular party for farmers, this changed during World War I when the party had mainly defended the interests of industrialists and consumer circles.
During the s, the BGB entered the mainstream of Swiss politics as a right-wing conservative party in the bourgeois bloc. While the party opposed any kind of socialist ideas such as internationalism and anti-militarism , it sought to represent local Swiss traders and farmers against big business and international capital.
The BGB contributed strongly to the establishment of the Swiss national ideology known as the Geistige Landesverteidigung Spiritual Defence of the Nation , which was largely responsible for the growing Swiss sociocultural and political cohesion from the s.
