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# Explaining the Populist Radical Right's Success in the 2023 Swiss National Elections: A Reference Group Perspective

## Details

**Authors** Anke Tresch, Line Rennwald

**Year** 2026

**Publisher** Swiss Political Science Review

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Political Science

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1111/spsr.70036) 
10.1111/spsr.70036

## In authors' words

### Abstract

This study analyses the success of populist radical right (PRR) parties in the 2023 Swiss elections using reference group theory. While existing literature emphasizes the influence of objective and subjective group membership on electoral choice, it often overlooks voters' feelings toward groups they do not belong to and their perceptions of parties' associations with these groups. We argue that this framework is key to understanding PRR voting. Like their European counterparts, Swiss PRR parties – particularly the Swiss People's Party – mobilized group-based resentment through a campaign stigmatizing asylum seekers and migrants, and by promoting an anti-gender agenda. Using data from the Swiss Election Study (Selects), we show that negative feelings toward migrants and feminists influenced PRR voting, beyond political preferences and socio-structural factors. This resentment also helped attract new voters who had initially leaned toward centre-right parties. The study highlights the importance of group feelings in electoral behaviour.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To explain the 2023 electoral success of Swiss populist radical right parties using reference group theory, focusing on voters' feelings toward groups they do not belong to rather than only their own group memberships.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Survey data from the Swiss Election Study (Selects) on the 2023 Swiss federal elections.

### How they did it (methods)

Survey-based analysis testing whether negative feelings toward out-groups (migrants and feminists) predicted populist radical right voting, controlling for political preferences and socio-structural factors.

### What they found (results)

Negative feelings toward migrants and feminists predicted voting for populist radical right parties beyond the effect of political preferences and socio-structural factors, and this out-group resentment helped draw new voters who had initially leaned toward centre-right parties.

## Commentary

### In short

Electoral behavior is shaped by how voters position themselves relative to groups they do not belong to, a comparative, other-directed vantage point, and this relational stance toward out-groups drives voting choices.

**Patterns it shows** R, P

**Added** 2026-09-26

**How to cite this** Anke Tresch, Line Rennwald (2026). Explaining the Populist Radical Right's Success in the 2023 Swiss National Elections: A Reference Group Perspective. Swiss Political Science Review.