Neo – The Social-liberal Centre

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Not to be confused with Christian Social Party (Switzerland).
Neo – The social-liberal Centre
Neo – Die sozialliberale Mitte
PresidentKonstantin Bumann
FoundedNovember 14, 1949 (1949-11-14)
IdeologyChristian left
Political positionCentrist
National affiliationThe Centre
Colors  Yellow
Website
www.neowallis.ch

Neo – The Social-liberal Centre (German: Neo – Die sozialliberale Mitte; French: NEO – Le Centre social-libéral), known before 2023 as the Christian-social People's Party of Upper Valais (German: Christlichsoziale Volkspartei Oberwallis CSPO) is a Christian-social political party in the German-speaking areas of the Swiss canton of Valais (Upper Valais), associated federally with The Centre.

History[edit]

The party was founded on 14 November 1949, mainly by Wolfgang Loretan [fr], to counter the rise of labour-oriented christian-social movements.[1]

In March 2023, following the merger of the CVP and BDP, the party renamed itself Neo, being the last of the three cantonal parties associated with The Centre to remove the word "Christian".[2]

Political orientation[edit]

Neo is one of three cantonal branches of The Centre in Valais, the other two being The Centre of Lower Valais and The Centre of Upper Valais. Neo caucuses with The Centre nationally, but it is independent at the cantonal level, its members of the Grand Council sitting as their own group.[3]

Electoral results[edit]

Federal elections[edit]

The party had one member of the National Council from 1951 until 2003, then had one elected again in 2007 and 2015. It rarely ran for the Council of States, often supporting the PDC/CVP candidates instead. It has not had a member of the Council of States since 2015 and of the National Council since 2019.[4]

Cantonal elections[edit]

In the 2021 cantonal elections, the party lost two seats but still has eight members in the Grand Council, and is the second-largest parliamentary group from Upper Valais.[5]

Election Seats[note 1]
1953
14 / 40
1957
15 / 40
1961
17 / 40
1965
17 / 41
1969
19 / 41
1973
18 / 41
1977
16 / 41
1981
15 / 41
1985
16 / 41
1989
15 / 41
1993
14 / 40
1997
14 / 40
2001
13 / 40
2005
15 / 39
2009
14 / 39
2013
12 / 38
2017
10 / 34
2021
8 / 33
  1. ^ Only the seats in Upper Valais

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Valais". hls-dhs-dss.ch (in French). Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  2. ^ "Le parti haut-valaisan CSPO change de nom et devient le parti NEO | Rhône FM". Le parti haut-valaisan CSPO change de nom et devient le parti NEO | Rhône FM (in French). Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  3. ^ "Parlament des Kantons Wallis". parlement.vs.ch. Retrieved 2023-10-05.
  4. ^ "National- & Ständeräte". Archived from the original on 2023-05-05.
  5. ^ "Grossrat". cspo.ch. Archived from the original on 2021-05-11.
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