[17] 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.

[22] The early origins of the SVP go back to the late 1910s, when numerous cantonal farmers' parties were founded in agrarian, Protestant, German-speaking parts of Switzerland.

[24] By 1929, the coalition of farmers' parties had gained enough influence to get one of their leaders, Rudolf Minger, elected to the Federal Council.

[25] After World War II, the BGB contributed to the establishment of the characteristic Swiss post-war consensual politics, social agreements and economic growth policies.

As the Democratic Party had represented centrist, social-liberal positions, the course of the SVP shifted towards the political centre following internal debates.

[28] When the young entrepreneur Christoph Blocher was elected president of the Zürich SVP in 1977, he declared his intent to oversee significant change in the political line of the Zürich SVP, bringing an end to debates that aimed to open the party up to a wide array of opinions.

Blocher soon consolidated his power in Zürich, and began to renew the organisational structures, activities, campaigning style and political agenda of the local branch.

The Zürich wing began to politicise asylum issues, and the question of European integration started to dominate Swiss political debates.

This was the biggest increase of votes for any party in the entire history of the Swiss proportional electoral system, which was introduced in 1919.

[39] As a result of the remarkable increase in the SVP's popularity, the party gained a second ministerial position in the Federal Council in 2003, which was taken by Christoph Blocher.

[41] However, the Federal Council refused to re-elect Blocher, who was replaced by Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf of the moderate Graubünden branch.

[43][44] The SVP regained its position in government in late 2008, when Schmid was forced to resign due to a political scandal, and was replaced with Ueli Maurer.

However the SVP rebounded strongly in the 2015 federal election, gathering a record 29.4% of the national vote and 65 seats in parliament.

[50][51] The SVP adheres to national conservatism,[52] aiming at the preservation of Switzerland's political sovereignty and a conservative society.

The SVP "does not reject either democracy or the liberal order," and the terms "right-wing populist" or "far-right" are rarely used to describe it in Switzerland.

In its foreign policy the SVP opposes the growing involvement of Switzerland in intergovernmental and especially supranational organisations, including the UN, EEA, EU, Schengen and Dublin treaties, and closer ties with NATO.

The party stands for a strict neutrality of the country and the preservation of the strong role of the Swiss Armed Forces as the institution responsible for national defense.

[55][56][57][58] Some, such as newspaper Die Welt, have also speculated that the initiative could be a response to the suggestion by Muammar al-Gaddafi to dissolve Switzerland and divide its territory among its neighbouring countries.

[66] In response, in 2020, the party placed the ballot a referendum called the "For Moderate Immigration" initiative, which would terminate the Free Movement of Persons bilateral agreement within one year of passage.

The expansion of the Schengen Area eastward was looked at skeptically by the SVP, which it associated with economic immigration and higher crime rates.

In terms of the environment, transportation and energy policy the SVP opposes governmental measures for environmental protection.

In its education policy, it opposes tendencies to shift the responsibility of the upbringing of children from families to public institutions.