Head of Freak Party Succeeds
Man Who Originated "Hotel Ran" rr0111 Our SWISS COrreSpOntlent
The General Elections have been held in Switzerland. There the triennial elections to the National Assembly took place this year on October 26 and 27, but since the counting of the votes is done according to a complicated, though highly efficient, system of proportional representation, the final results were not known, until a week later.
Deputies to the number of 187 were to be elected. In the old assembly the governmental forces mustered 124; in the new one, this number is reduced to 11 I, which however constitutes comfortable enough a majority. and assures that continuity without iolent changes, so characteristic of Swiss mentality.
The Socialists had made et tremendous effort to sweep the board; in the end they get back to the Assembly 50 strong. as they came out of it. If individually they have become the strongest party, it is only because ihe Radicals, who used to have 52 deputies, only have 48 this time.
Far from Radical
These " Radicals are far from radical : they are the bourgeois Liberal and Protestant party, to whom 21 "Peasants" should be added. With the Catholie-Cori• servative party (42 strong), they form the governmaital "bloc." who this time have lost 4, 7. and 2 deputies respectively.
The "Young Peasants." allied to thc Socialists. have gained 2 seats and arc now 4 strong, of Extremists there remain 2 Communists and, for the lit-St time, Fascist. This_ party, protesting its indeerendenee both from Ilerr Hitler and Signor Mussolini, had opened its mouth wick--more suo--but obviously cuts no ice in Switzerland.
Eteetion Surprise
The surprise of the elections is the success Of M. Duttweiler, a business man who believes Si, rati(lnalisin the retail trade on senti-wholevale lines (hence the name of its part), "Migros"), and who has originated the "Hotel Plan." which buys up wholesale vacant accommodation in hotels and railway cheap tickets, and offers them combined to the Swiss public on lines well known already to the British public as "Five Days in I ncerne" trips. etc.
NI. Dultweiler makes a good thing out of his "plan" as it is: he now enters Parfiament at the head of a freak party of seven, whom some suffrages of the Swiss public deem capable of solving the problem of world depression by a dose of yet more slap-dash rationalisation and business
methods.