Poll jolt for Swiss anti-immigration People's Party

The Swiss People's Party has called for an end to mass immigration

Switzerland's right-wing People's Party has seen its share of the vote fall at parliamentary elections, defying forecasts of a historic result.

It had campaigned on a tough anti-immigration platform, and had predicted it would receive an unprecedented 30% of the vote on Sunday. But with the count nearly complete, it was set to get less than 27%.

Its calls to limit immigration strictly are now likely to be quietly ignored, a BBC correspondent says.

The party lost votes, in part, to a more moderate breakaway party, the Conservative Democrats, and a new Green Party also did well. Both these parties focussed on issues which have worried voters this year, like the strong Swiss franc and its effect on the economy, or future energy policy now that Switzerland has decided to phase out nuclear power, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

The People's Party had been buoyed by recent successes in campaigns to ban minarets, and to automatically deport foreign criminals. But voters gave the party something of a slap in the face - fewer votes and the loss of seven parliamentary seats, our correspondent notes.

The party's single campaign theme - restricting immigration - did not seem to find favour. Switzerland's foreign population may be almost 25% but its unemployment rate is less than 3%. Voters know many Swiss businesses, and their health service, depend on foreign workers, our correspondent says.

While the People's Party remains the largest party, its chances of negotiating more power in Switzerland's coalition government are now greatly reduced, our correspondent adds.

BBC

Thanks to Zaahid for the heads-up

Rightwing SVP tightens grip in Swiss election

Switzerland's rightwing People's party, accused of racism and fanning Islamophobia, strengthened its position as the country's leading political force yesterday, gaining more than 2 percentage points to win a general election for the second time in a row, according to projections.

Led by the populist industrialist Christoph Blocher, the People's party, or SVP, was projected to have taken almost 29% of the vote, securing six more seats in parliament and two seats in the seven-strong cabinet that is always a coalition of the four strongest parties.

In a country where the glaciers are melting and concern about global warming is intense, the other big winner yesterday was the Green party which took 10% of the vote, according to the projections

For one of the oldest and most stable democracies in the world, the election campaign was unusually divisive because of Mr Blocher's contempt for traditional Swiss consensus and his breaking of taboos. The main opposition social democrats were the losers yesterday, after making the mistake of allowing Mr Blocher to dominate by calling for him to be kicked out of the cabinet whatever the result.

Mr Blocher is the justice minister in the outgoing federal cabinet and is expected to keep his place when a new government is appointed in December.

Yesterday's results illustrated two central points - that the SVP has probably peaked and is unlikely to increase its support after adding around a percentage point compared with 2003, but also that by winning its second election in a row, it has confirmed itself as the leading force in Switzerland and confounded opponents who had hoped that its performance in 2003 was a one-off.

Guardian

Swiss party accused of racist campaigning

Switzerland's biggest political party has come under fire for racist and xenophobic campaigning after its posters featured black sheep and its proposals to deport immigrants were likened by anti-racism campaigners to Nazi practices.

The nationalist People's party, which controls the lower house of the Swiss parliament, has run an advertising campaign showing three white sheep on a Swiss flag kicking out a black sheep with the caption "For more security".

The party, which controls the justice ministry and is part of Switzerland's coalition, is proposing a scheme to deport immigrant families if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offences or benefit fraud. It claims immigrants, which make up 20% of the population, are four times more likely to commit crimes than Swiss nationals.

The party is trying to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to force a referendum on the scheme. If approved, the law would be the only one of its kind in Europe. The party is also preparing for October elections, in which it is likely to retain its position as Switzerland's leading party.

Üli Maurer, the party's president, said: "As soon as the first 10 families and their children have been expelled from the country, then things will get better at a stroke."

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 their crimes and punished equally. He said the majority of Switzerland's immigrants were law-abiding. "If you don't treat a complicated issue with the necessary nuance and care, you won't do it justice," he said.

The UN special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène, asked the Swiss government for an explanation over the adverts. Earlier this year, Mr Diène published a report criticising the "racist and xenophobic dynamic" in Switzerland and warning that political parties were taking advantage of tensions over national identity.

The Swiss president, Micheline Calmy-Rey, a Social Democrat, called the posters "irresponsible" and liable to incite racial hatred.

The city authority in Geneva, where the UN has its European headquarters, has also protested. But the People's party's hardline stance on crime and immigration is likely to boost its vote.

Guardian