In Switzerland the Black Sheep Lost

Photo: Switzerland - criticism of the People's party in 2003.



A previous article in the London Independent called Switzerland "the Heart of Darkness." The country who has gained fame for being neutral has fallen off the map of ethics. Hopefully the rest of Europe won't be so blind to follow.



-----
Racist' campaign pays off in Swiss poll
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
London Independent
Published: 22 October 2007

The right-wing Swiss People's Party won its best-ever showing in general elections yesterday after a virulent anti-foreigner campaign that was widely denounced as racist, but failed to obtain the landslide victory it had been hoping for.

The SVP, led by the controversial billionaire and Swiss Justice Minister Christoph Blocher secured almost 29 per cent of the vote and an extra six seats in parliament, the first exit polls suggested last night.

Mr Blocher's campaign was dominated by the single issue of immigration. His party's election posters featured three white sheep standing on a red and white Swiss national flag kicking a black sheep out of the country. Alongside ran the slogan "more security!"

The notorious posters, which were part of the party's campaign to deport foreign criminal offenders and their families, were denounced as "openly racist" by the United Nations.

However the campaign appeared to have appealed to voters. Yesterday's elections saw the SVP consolidate its position as the largest party in the Swiss parliament, but its share of the vote increased by just two percentage points.


article: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3084302.ece
photo: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/capt.sge.qlk65.191003195834.photo01.default-384x256.jpg

Campaign Marked by "Controversial Posters"

Media Source Swiss Radio International decries the recent violence during a recent People's Party demonstration, stating there had been controversy about a "poster campaign" - while not mentioning the context of the posters, which showed a group of sheep, several white and one black, with the black sheep in the process of being kicked out.

An article by the BBC (Oct 6) stated "a campaign video showing what it is claimed are young hooded foreigners committing violent crimes was withdrawn after the Swiss youngsters who actually took part complained they had been told they were taking part in a crime-prevention video."

'And across the country, hundreds of the black sheep posters have been defaced, many with a single word - "Shame". '

The Swiss news source blandly tells readers that the poster campaign has ..."made the headlines with a controversial poster campaign aimed at criminal foreigners."

The United Nations has demanded an explanation and the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities spokesman said it was a "disgusting way to conduct politics," that the campaign is reminiscent of the Nazi regime.


_____
October 6, 2007 - 6:25 PM
Pre-election rally marred by violence
Swiss Radio International


Several hundred militants prevented the estimated 10,000 People's Party supporters from marching through the streets of Bern to gather outside the parliament building.

Police fired teargas at the militants who went on a rampage and destroyed infrastructure for the planned rally on Parliament Square.

Police in the capital, Bern, have clashed with leftwing militants who tried to interrupt a planned election rally by the rightwing Swiss People's Party.
The violence is the latest sign of rising tensions ahead of an unusually divisive parliamentary election later this month.

Justice Minister Christoph Blocher - who is also the party's front man - accused the militants of seeking to suppress the freedom of speech.

"This day will go down in Swiss history," Blocher told a crowd of supporters at an improvised gathering.

He said the militants had prevented the largest political party in Switzerland from holding a peaceful demonstration.

Defence Minister Samuel Schmid, who also represents the People's Party in the seven-member cabinet, denounced the violence. He said Saturday's incidents were not in line with Switzerland's democratic traditions and values.

The protesters hurled rocks and bottles at security forces.

More than 20 policemen and demonstrators and policemen were injured in the skirmishes, a police spokesman said. Several dozen militants were detained for questioning...

Anti-Blocker Protest

A non-authorised demonstration by local left-wing groups was scheduled for the same time in Bern. Speakers criticised the People's Party for what they described as "xenophobic and fascist" policy.

An estimated 3,000 people attended the rally outside the city cathedral.

Opponents of Blocher also protested in Zurich and Geneva.

The demonstrations came as the election campaign draws to a close. It has been marked by use of controversial posters and efforts to ban minarets in Switzerland as well as allegations of a conspiracy against Justice Minister Blocher.

His party has gained popularity in recent years with its anti-European stance and its nationalist and isolationist message.

swissinfo with agencies
for complete article click title to this post

Switzerland's Pour Plus Sécurité

Immigration, Black Sheep and Swiss Rage
New York Times
By ELAINE SCIOLINO
Published: October 8, 2007


SCHWERZENBACH, Switzerland, Oct. 4 — The posters taped on the walls at a political rally here capture the rawness of Switzerland’s national electoral campaign: three white sheep stand on the Swiss flag as one of them kicks a single black sheep away.
“To Create Security,” the poster reads.

The poster is not the creation of a fringe movement, but of the most powerful party in Switzerland’s federal Parliament and a member of the coalition government, an extreme right-wing party called the Swiss People’s Party, or SVP. It has been distributed in a mass mailing to Swiss households, reproduced in newspapers and magazines and hung as huge billboards across the country.

As voters prepare to go to the polls in a general election on Oct. 21, the poster — and the party’s underlying message — have polarized a country that prides itself on peaceful consensus in politics, neutrality in foreign policy and tolerance in human relations.

Suddenly the campaign has turned into a nationwide debate over the place of immigrants in one of the world’s oldest democracies, and over what it means to be Swiss.

“The poster is disgusting, unacceptable,” Micheline Calmy-Rey, the current president of Switzerland under a one-year rotation system, said in an interview. “It stigmatizes others and plays on the fear factor, and in that sense it’s dangerous. The campaign does not correspond to Switzerland’s multicultural openness to the world. And I am asking all Swiss who do not agree with its message to have the courage to speak out.”

Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin, of the Liberal Democratic Party, has even suggested that the SVP’s worship of Christoph Blocher, the billionaire who is the party’s driving force and the current justice minister, is reminiscent of that of Italian fascists for Mussolini.

[On Saturday, a march of several thousand SVP supporters in Bern ended in clashes between hundreds of rock-throwing counterdemonstrators and riot police officers, who used tear gas to disperse them. The opponents of the rally, organized by a new group called the Black Sheep Committee, had tried to prevent the demonstrators from marching to Parliament...

for complete article click title to this post
photo:BBC, http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44099000/jpg/_44099666_swissposter2_afp203b.jpg

Switzerland's Immigration Laws

Swiss Flag

Swiss citizenship system 'racist'
By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva


An official report into the process of naturalisation in Switzerland says the current system is discriminatory and in many respects racist.

The report, from Switzerland's Federal Commission on Racial Discrimination, recommends far-reaching changes.

It criticises the practice of allowing members of a community to vote on an individual's citizenship application.

Muslims and people from the Balkans and Africa are the most likely to be rejected, the report points out.

Switzerland has Europe's toughest naturalisation laws. Foreigners must live for 12 years in a Swiss community before they can apply, and being born in Switzerland brings no right to citizenship.

Under the current system, foreigners apply through their local town or village.

They appear before a citizenship committee and answer questions about their desire to be Swiss. After that, they must often be approved by the entire voting community, in a secret ballot, or a show of hands. This practice, the report says, is particularly likely to be distorted by racial discrimination.

It cites the case of a disabled man originally from Kosovo. Although fulfilling all the legal criteria, his application for citizenship was rejected by his community on the grounds that his disability made him a burden on taxpayers, and that he was Muslim.

The report recommends that decisions on citizenship should be decided by an elected executive and not by the community as a whole. But such a move is likely to encounter stiff opposition.

Foreigners are a key issue in the run-up to Switzerland's general election next month.

The right-wing Swiss People's Party, currently leading in the opinion polls, claims Swiss communities have a democratic right to decide who can or cannot be Swiss.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6992670.stm
posted previously on Immigration Prof blog

Xenophobia Not Only in the U.S.

Ueli Maurer, President of the Swiss People's Party SVP


Maybe when Alberto shucked the Geneva Convention - the nation of Switzerland, known for its peacekeeping... decided to let it all go and turn into a xenophobic country... Some people are fighting it, but it looks like the anti-immigration rhetoric is linked to an upcoming election... sound familiar?
-----

Swiss Deportation Policy Draws Criticism
By FRANK JORDANS
The Washington Post
The Associated Press
Saturday, September 1, 2007; 8:17 AM


GENEVA -- The campaign poster was blatant in its xenophobic symbolism: Three white sheep kicking out a black sheep over a caption that read "for more security." The message was not from a fringe force in Switzerland's political scene but from its largest party.

The nationalist Swiss People's Party is proposing a deportation policy that anti-racism campaigners say evokes Nazi-era practices. Under the plan, entire families would be expelled if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offenses or benefits fraud.

...He explained that his party has long campaigned to make deportation compulsory for convicted immigrants rather than an optional and rarely applied punishment.

The party claims foreigners _ who make up about 20 percent of the population _ are four times more likely to commit crimes than Swiss nationals.

Bernheim said the vast majority of Switzerland's immigrants are law-abiding and warned against generalizations.

"If you don't treat a complicated issue with the necessary nuance and care, then you won't do it justice," he said.

Commentators have expressed horror over the symbolism used by the People's Party to make its point.

Ronnie Bernheim of the Swiss Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism said the proposal was similar to the Nazi practice of "Sippenhaft" _ or kin liability _ whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for his or her crimes and punished equally.

Similar practices occurred during Stalin's purges in the early days of the Soviet Union and the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution in China, when millions were persecuted for their alleged ideological failings.

...Commentators have expressed horror over the symbolism used by the People's Party to make its point.

Oliver Geden, a political scientist at the Berlin Institute for International and Security Affairs.

...said provocative campaigns such as this had worked well for the party in the past.

"The symbol of the black sheep was clearly intended to have a double meaning. On the one hand there's the familiar idea of the black sheep, but a lot of voters are also going to associate it with the notion of dark-skinned drug dealers," said Geden...

For complete article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/01/AR2007090100226.html

Associated Press File Photo