For those less familiar with Swiss politics, the four parties in the Magic Formula coalition:

• Social Democratic Party (German acronym SP): as the name implies, the main centre-left party

• Radical Party (FDP): liberals; presently right-liberals

• Swiss People's Party (SVP): former centrist party (a union of diverse small parties, most of which split off the liberals) more or less taken over by Swiss-German media tycoon Christoph Blocher, who took it towards a virulently xenophobic far-right direction

• Christian Democratic [People's] Party (CVP): as the name implies, conservative party.