Swiss consensus government collapses as right-wing quit

Swiss minister Blocher walks out of with National Councillor Caspar Baader after addressing parliament in Bern December 13, 2007.

BERNE (Reuters) - Switzerland's consensus form of government shattered on Thursday as the right-wing Swiss People's Party went into opposition, an abrupt end to the cozy style that has dominated Swiss politics for decades.

The withdrawal of the party, prompted after a senior member was ousted from the seven-member executive cabinet, ends 49 years of power-sharing among the country's four main parties and swings the balance towards the centre.

"You have forced us to go into opposition, destroyed our treasured system of government and sacrificed your sworn interest in concordance, collegiality and tolerance to benefit your own short-term power lust," said Caspar Baader, head of the People's Party's parliamentary faction.

"Switzerland now has a centre-left government," Baader told the assembly following Christoph Blocher's rejection in favor of more moderate People's Party rival Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf.

Analysts said the party's stance would likely have a destabilizing effect on the usually smooth-running government.

"It is likely that Swiss politics will become less predictable in the future," said Lukas Golder, a political analyst at pollsters gfs.Bern.

"They (the People's Party) can put forward initiatives and campaign in referenda and in issues like asylum, foreigners and the European Union they would be able to obtain a majority and block government decisions."

During the October election the People's Party drew accusations of racism by rights groups and the United Nations. The party defended campaign posters showing a black sheep being kicked off a Swiss flag by three white sheep, saying the 'black sheep' referred only to criminal foreigners.

COMPROMISE SOLUTIONS

Switzerland's unusual style of government has relied since 1959 on ministers from rival parties working together to find compromise solutions which they are then expected to defend in public, whatever their personal views.

The need for compromise is underscored by the country's system of direct democracy which allows individual citizens to challenge legislation via referendums providing they gather together a petition with enough signatures.

Critics of Blocher, a billionaire industrialist, had accused the outgoing justice minister of paying lip service to collective responsibility and acting both as a minister and opposition figure.

His expulsion from the government was sealed on Wednesday when parliamentarians from the left and centrist parties voted in Widmer-Schlumpf in his place.

At her first media conference Widmer-Schlumpf said she would endeavor to work with her party colleagues despite a party decision to eject her from the parliamentary faction.

"I do not know if there will be a split in the party, or even how that would be possible because there clearly cannot be two People's Party factions," Widmer-Schlumpf said.

Blocher played a driving role in transforming the People's Party from a small group mainly representing farmers' interests into a populist business-friendly party with strong support among middle-class voters worried about immigration and crime.

He featured heavily on campaign posters during the election which saw his party secure around 29 per cent of the vote -- the best result by an individual party since Switzerland introduced proportional representation in 1919.

(Additional reporting by Tom Armitage, Editing by Thomas Atkins and Matthew Jones)