Swiss Christian Democratic Party no longer “Christian”

The party will no longer be called “Christian Democratic Party (PDC) but instead “Le Center Vailais. 328 party members voted in favour, while 7 of them abstained, Evangeliques Info reports.

The name change follows the results of the cantonal elections of March 2021. During these elections, the Christian party lost its majority in the Council of State. Therefore, the party wants to extend its target group beyond the Catholics in the country. At federal level, the party already dropped “Christian” from its name in November 2020 when it merged with the Bourgeois-Democratic party.

The name change is not the ultimate goal of the party, Joachim Rausis, the president of the party declared earlier. According to him, it is the start “of a long process”, RTS writes. Rausis: “We must learn to do politics differently.”

All French-speaking cantons have accepted the name change of the Christian Democratic Party, except for Jura. Jura will not take a decision before the end of the year, it announced. Patricia Meylan, deputy of the Grand Council, disagrees with the change. “I am a Christian Democrat, because I feel like a Christian Democrat. To turn my back on the term Christian, is to turn my back on our culture”, she says. Officially, cantons have to decide before the next cantonal elections in 2025.