The BDP (“Bürgerlich-Demokratische Partei”, Civil Democratic Party) was founded in 2008 as a spin-off of the more moderate, more liberal and less polarising part of the SVP (“Schweizerische Volkspartei”, Swiss People's Part) and existed until the end of 2020. Because the SVP, originally a centre-right party when it was founded in 1971, moved more and more to the right in the 1990s, especially under Christoph Blocher, the moderate representatives of the SVP saw themselves forced to split off and found the BDP on 1 January 2008.

On 1 January 2021, the BDP merged with the CVP (“Christlichdemokratische Volkspartei”, Christian Democratic People's Party). The new name of the merged party is "Die Mitte" (The Centre) and is centrally located in the political spectrum. Because the new party describes itself as liberal-social, but on the part of the CVP the roots come from the Catholic-conservative area, the party alternately votes with the conservative or the more liberal forces in parliament and therefore often represents the "tipping of the scales". It is therefore often perceived as the "kingmaker".

The BDP last participated in the National Council and Council of States elections in 2019 and achieved a voter share of 2.5% with a relatively large loss of 1.6% of the electorate. The party was last represented in the National Council with 3 mandates. Traditionally, the PBD achieved the highest voting percentages in the cantons of Berne, Graubünden and Glarus. The BDP contested the National Council elections in 2011, 2015 and 2019, but lost voter shares in each election. The party's highest voter share was 5.4% in 2011. With Evelyne Widmer-Schlumpf and Samuel Schmid, the party was also represented in the Federal Council for several years. Both Federal Councillors were formerly SVP members, but then switched to the BDP.