Ticino's Lega says yes to alliance with the SVP

The Lega dei Ticinesi's extraordinary assembly, held behind closed doors on Wednesday evening in Arbedo, gave the go-ahead for an electoral alliance with the Swiss People's Party (SVP, known as UDC in Italian and French). The proposal passed by 36 votes to 16, a sign that the agreement is not shared by the whole movement.

The deal covers the 2027 cantonal and federal elections. The broader idea of a "common centre-right house" has instead been put off to a longer-term horizon.

The Ticino SVP committee had already backed the agreement at a meeting in early September in Sant'Antonino. The path here was not a given: in June the SVP had announced its intention to run alone in the elections next April.

In a statement issued after the assembly, the Lega wrote that "il 2027 dovrà rappresentare il primo passo verso un progetto politico comune, solido e credibile, da costruire insieme nel 2028, garantendo ancora l'autonomia decisionale sino a progetto definitivo" (in English: 2027 must represent the first step toward a joint political project, solid and credible, to be built together in 2028, while still guaranteeing decision-making autonomy until a final project is in place). The movement thus intends to join forces on shared issues without giving up its own political identity for now.

One seat each in government

The rapprochement comes as the composition of the cantonal executive changes. Claudio Zali is leaving the government at the end of the month, and SVP member Piero Marchesi is taking his place. The Lega and the SVP will each therefore have their own representative on the Council of State.

SVP national president Marcel Dettling commented on the move on Wednesday to RSI's microphones: "Non stiamo divorando la Lega" ("We are not devouring the Lega"). The reassurance comes after months of tension between the two parties, which culminated in June with the SVP's announcement that it would run alone in next April's elections.

For centre-right voters, the real stake is governing coherence. Whether the alliance holds up at the ballot box in 2027 is one question; the real test will be whether the two parties, each now holding a seat on the Council of State, can turn the agreement into joint decisions on public finances and the burdens on businesses and taxpayers, without their separate identities ending up slowing down executive decisions.