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Posted: **Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:11 am**

The far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) has regained its place in the government as MPs elected conservative Ueli Maurer to the cabinet.

Mr Maurer emerged triumphant after three rounds of tense voting, winning the required majority of 122 votes.

He replaces outgoing Defence Minister Samuel Schmid in the seven-member cabinet - the Federal Council.

The vote comes nearly a year after controversial SVP leader Christoph Blocher was forced out the cabinet.

Mr Blocher - a billionaire industrialist with a reputation for fiery nationalism and scathing attacks on immigration - lost his seat as a justice minister in December 2007, despite his party's record success in elections earlier that year.

The SVP's election campaign was criticised as racist by the United Nations.

The run-up to the polls also saw rioting in the city of Bern, when left-wing and anarchist groups tried to disrupt an SVP rally.

All four of Switzerland's major political parties are represented in the Federal Council, in a unique system of government by consensus.

Posted: **Thu Dec 11, 2008 12:18 am**

They are against immigration, and therefore must be far right. Indeed economic policy and foreign policy (except where Israel and the USA is concerned), now pale in significance to immigration policy and of course criminal policy; e.g. do you send people to jail or do you "Try to engage them in meaningful discourse to discover the causes of discontent that lead to certain anti-social behaviours."

Since the SVP is hard on crime and immigration they are to the right. No matter what their other policies may be like. Strange that. Mind you I don't know what their other policies are like, but I doubt any European party would reach even Republican levels of right wingedness so to speak.

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Swiss far-right win cabinet post

#1 Swiss far-right win cabinet post

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