In Geneva, a promising alliance between Le Centre and the Vert'liberals

The Centre is looking to the Vert'liberals for the 2025 municipal elections in Geneva. In addition to the proximity between the two parties, this union could prove fertile insofar as each political formation complements the weaknesses of the other.

The marriage seemed obvious. And yet, the Green Liberal Party and Le Centre had not expressed their wishes for the last two elections. For the second round of elections to the Council of State in the spring of 2023, the former Christian Democratic Party preferred to join forces with the SVP and PLR to form a more electorally appealing alliance. The gamble paid off: centrist candidate Delphine Bachmann was elected thanks to the votes of the broader right. A few months later, in October 2023, Le Centre was again tempted by this alliance for the Council of States, with much less success at the ballot box.

With a view to the 2025 municipal elections, the centrist party is playing the proximity card by forming an alliance with the Vert'liberals in the City of Geneva. The ticket will comprise centrist administrative councillor Marie Barbey-Chappuis and Green Liberal Boris Calame. Beyond the «strong center away from polarization and dogmatism» rhetoric recited by the two parties when announcing the alliance, this marriage could be fruitful if it is a long-term one. There are several reasons for this.

Experience and innovation

The strength of the alliance lies in the complementary nature of the two parties. The Centre has always claimed a moderate, responsible stance, far removed from show politics. This posture has made it difficult to impose its agenda in public debate, to bring forward disruptive ideas and to unite around them. The party is now the seventh largest political group in Geneva's Grand Council, with nine members. While it can rely on the experience and credibility it has inherited from its long political history, Le Centre needs a new lease of life to relaunch itself in the city at the end of the lake.

And just as well, his new ally for the municipal elections has ideas. Or rather, that's all he has. Inexistent on the executive and legislative levels in Geneva, and now absent from the National Council, Geneva's Vert'liberals are obliged to be inventive in order to exist politically in the city of Calvin, notably by launching initiatives which, for the time being, have convinced the electorate. Both the parental leave initiative and the initiative to abolish lifetime pensions for state councillors have been widely accepted by the people. The Green'Liberal Party thus stands out for its capacity for innovation, which is often lacking in the Centre. For its part, the Centre brings institutional solidity and experience of government that the Greens are still a long way from having.

Close but complementary

Although they operate in a similar ideological space, the two groups complement each other in terms of their political identities. Ecology, at the heart of the green-liberal project, has never been a strong theme of the Centre, which has integrated action against climate change into its program in line with the general trend of the last twenty years, without spearheading it. For its part, Le Centre is part of a political tradition inspired by Christian values that have never been claimed by the Greens.

Last but not least, the two parties' electorates aggregate well, especially if the alliance eventually expands to the cantonal level. In Geneva, the Green Liberals mainly appeal to an urban electorate. In the last Grand Council election, their list outperformed that of the Centre in Geneva City, Carouge and Chêne-Bougeries. The Centre, on the other hand, is well established in certain outlying communes, notably those where it is represented in executive bodies such as Bernex, Plan-les-Ouates or Bardonnex, precisely where the Greens are still little recognized.

Read also | The center has no monopoly on the search for balance

The alliance therefore seems strategically coherent, but at every election the two parties stumble over the same question: how to convince and exist as a party at the center of the political spectrum in increasingly polarized campaigns? Now that they have come together, Le Centre and the Green'liberals will have their work cut out to build and sell a «strong center» in Geneva. The 2025 municipal elections will give us a glimpse of whether this union convinces the electorate and can be extended to a larger scale.

Write to the author: pablo.sanchez@leregardlibre.com

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