It had, until January 2016, one Federal Councillor, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, whose election in defiance of the SVP/UDC incumbent Christoph Blocher led to the creation of the party.

On 2 April 2008, the national SVP/UDC leadership called for Widmer-Schlumpf to immediately resign from both the Federal Council and the party.

On 16 June 2008, the delegates' convention of the SVP/UDC's former Grisons branch voted to change its name to BPS Graubünden (Conservative Party of Switzerland-Graubünden), becoming the first cantonal section of what would become the BDP/PBD.

Eleven other cantonal branches were founded, predominantly in German-speaking Switzerland: Aargau, Basel-Landschaft, Fribourg, Glarus, Lucerne, Schwyz, Solothurn, St. Gallen, Thurgau, Valais and Zürich.

The BDP was described as being centre[1] to centre-right,[15][16] and supported bilateral accords with the European Union, and it opposed the tightening of Switzerland's asylum.

The BDP also was the third-largest party in the Cantonal Council of neighbouring Glarus, with ten of the legislature's sixty seats.