The Alternative Left (; ) or The Left (; ), is a political party of the left in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland that existed at the national level from 2010 to 2018. This party sought to unite the political forces and movements farther to the left on Switzerland's political spectrum than the centre-left Social Democratic Party and the Green Party.
History
After an opening party congress on 21 November 2009, in Schaffhausen, the party was officially founded six months later at the congress of Lausanne on 29 May 2010. In that congress the party presented a program of nine important political points. The third congress took place in Zurich on 5 March 2011, where party members voted to launch a national referendum blocking the flat-rate tax incentive favoring foreign millionaires which financial lobbies had sought to enthrone as a Swiss constitutional amendment. The same referendum in the canton of Zurich, originating with the Alternative List, was earlier approved in that Canton by Zurich's voters with a 52.9% majority in February 2009. The third congress was at the 30th juny in Biel with a discussion with Stéphane Hessel in the afternoon.
The national organisation got dissolved in 2018.
Sections In total the "Alternative Left" counted six official sections:
These sections consisted of a few people and did not operate as active party sections. Most of these listed sections are inactive and have always operated individually.
There are other groups, that were losely involved in the AL, but were never official members of the party:
Electoral results
Parliament National Council Election year # ofoverall votes % ofoverall vote # ofoverall seats won +/– 2011 21,482 0.88 —
References
Numerous Swiss national press clippings dealing with events cited in French, German, and Italian texts Correspondence and proceedings emanating from 2009 Congress at Schaffhausen and 2011 Congress in Zurich
External links