The Swiss Independence Party up!

up! Switzerland
President Simon Scherrer
Founded June 18, 2014 (2014-06-18)
Ideology Libertarianism
Hard Euroscepticism
International affiliation International Alliance of Libertarian Parties
Website
up-schweiz.ch

The Swiss Independence Party up! (also up! Switzerland) is a libertarian political party based in Switzerland. It was formed on June 18, 2014 and is the main founder of the International Alliance of Libertarian Parties.

History

The Independence party up! was founded in 2014 by Simon Scherrer, Silvan Amberg and Brenda Mäder.[1] The announcement received quite a broad media attention due to its founder Brenda being the former president of the Young Liberals (Switzerland).[2]

In 2015 the party founded its cantonal section in Zurich and was running for national parliament without success.

In February 2018 the party again received broad attention due to the appearance of Simon Scherrer and Silvan Amberg in the national TV-Debate “Arena” for their opposition against the federal taxes.[3]

Political Positions

The party’s vision is to reduce government activities to a minimum. The sole purpose of government should be to protect life, property and liberty of its citizens.[4]

The party puts strong emphasis on its philosophical roots, including self-ownership and the non-aggression-principle and has formulated those foundations in “paper of principles”[5]

Since its incorporation the party has been advocate of abolishing subsidies (e.g. for culture[6]), the federal income tax,[7] the beer tax,[8] the compulsory old age insurance “AHV”[9] but also the liberalization of migration and the legalization of all drugs.

Organisation

The Independence Party up! is governed by a national board which is elected annually by its active members with voting rights (so called ‘driver’). The board can establish local bodies.[10] The only cantonal party has been founded in the Canton of Zurich so far.[11]

Up! has been active only in the German-speaking part of Switzerland but it has recently launched a web-site in French (www.up-romandie.ch).

The party has confirmed several times that it will run for parliament only but will refrain from any executive positions in politics.[12]

Public Perception / Criticism

Up! has been named a “hippie version” of the Swiss liberal party FDP due to its tolerant positions on homosexuality and drugs.[13] Swiss media has referred to up! as being “radical avant-garde” but also as “Government-haters” or “enemy of the state”.

Often up! is referred to as “young”, “small” or even “micro-party”. Some media has criticized that up! is gaining more media attention than it would deserve based on its size and electorate.[14]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Fontana, Katharina (2017-03-28). "Die radikalen Vorkämpfer | NZZ". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  2. ↑ Switzerland, St. Galler Tagblatt AG,. "Brenda Mäder gründet eine neue Partei". Thurgauer Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  3. ↑ "Abstimmungs-"Arena" - Soll der Bund weiter Steuern erheben dürfen?". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) (in German). 2018-01-20. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  4. ↑ www.20min.ch, www.20minuten.ch, 20 Minuten, 20 Min,. ""Wir sind eine Minimal-Staat-Partei"". 20 Minuten. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  5. ↑ Paper of Principles
  6. ↑ www.20min.ch, www.20minuten.ch, 20 Minuten, 20 Min,. ""Bald mehr Filmemacher als Zuschauer"". 20 Minuten. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  7. ↑ www.20min.ch, www.20minuten.ch, 20 Minuten, 20 Min,. "Ein laut geführter Kampf geht zu Ende". 20 Minuten. Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  8. ↑ Blick. "Petition: Unabhängigkeitspartei will Biersteuer abschaffen" (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  9. ↑ Switzerland, St. Galler Tagblatt AG,. "Gegen Steuern und die AHV". St.Galler Tagblatt (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  10. ↑ Articles of Association
  11. ↑ Abend, Blick am. "Sie wollen hoch hinaus: Zürich bekommt eine "Hippie-FDP"" (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  12. ↑ Switzerland, St. Galler Tagblatt AG,. "Brenda Mäder gründet eine neue Partei". St.Galler Tagblatt (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  13. ↑ Abend, Blick am. "Sie wollen hoch hinaus: Zürich bekommt eine "Hippie-FDP"" (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-05.
  14. ↑ Duc, Julien. "Doppelauftritt für Mikro-Partei UP in "Arena"" (in German). Retrieved 2018-05-05.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.