Alternative Left

Alternative Left
Alternative Left
German name	Alternative Linke (AL)
French name	La Gauche (LG)
Italian name	La Sinistra
Romansh name	L'Alternativa sanestra
Founded	29 May 2010
Headquarters	2722 Les Reussilles
Membership (2011)	2,000
Ideology	Democratic socialism;
Political position	Left-wing
National Council	0 / 200
Council of States	0 / 46
Cantonal legislatures	10 / 2,609
	Politics of Switzerland; Political parties; Elections; Swiss Federal Council; Federal Chancellor; Federal Assembly; Council of States (members); National Council (members); Voting

The Alternative Left (German: Alternative Linke; Romansh: L'Alternativa sanestra) or The Left (French: La Gauche; Italian: La Sinistra), 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^{[clarification needed]} 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:

Alternative Linke Bern
La Gauche Valais Romand
La Gauche Arc jurassien
La Gauche Vaud
La Gauche Nyon
La Gauche Genève

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:

Alternative List Zürich
Alternative List Winterthur
Alternative List Limmattal
Alternative List Schaffhausen

Electoral results

Parliament

Election year	# of overall votes	% of overall vote	# of overall seats won	+/–
National Council
2011	21,482	0.88	0 / 200	—

References

↑ Der Bund kurz erklärt (in German). Swiss Confederation. 2011. p. 21. Archived from the original on 24 January 2012.

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

Official website (in German, French, and Italian)

[1] Der Bund kurz erklärt (in German). Swiss Confederation. 2011. p. 21. Archived from the original on 24 January 2012.

[1]