The center-periphery divide: Switzerland's eternal problem

Le Regard Libre N° 61 - Clément Guntern

In a highly urbanized country like ours, talk of the city-country divide no longer makes much sense. Yet another divide, both political and economic as well as spatial, is becoming more pronounced with each passing year: the divide between city centers and suburbs. Finding solutions to this problem seems urgent, especially when it comes to environmental policy.

In a previous issue (No. 57), we reported on the divide that emerged at the ballot box after the federal elections in October 2019. It was clear that the elected representatives and the political parties they represented in the National Council were becoming increasingly polarized. On the one hand, an ecologist, urban and academic left, and on the other, a less urban right with other types of background. It's not unreasonable to think that this situation is nothing really new in the past.