What on earth is going on in Switzerland? The poster on the right is plastered all over bus stops, train stations and post offices in Swiss cities (except in Geneva where the campaign was banned by city council) in anticipation of federal elections on Sunday, 21 October. It is a rallying cry from the SVP (Swiss People's Party) to "create security" through the expulsion of foreign families who have broken the law. Activist groups in Switzerland and the United Nations have complained that it is blatantly racist but the SVP probably isn't worried about that as the party opposes Swiss membership in the EU and the UN. Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey is worried that Switzerland's image as a "bridge builder and promoter of dialogue" was tarnished by violent demonstrations against the SVP campaign last week in Bern. But if you subscribe to the any publicity is good publicity school of public relations than maybe all this tension and worldwide coverage is a good thing for the SVP (known as the UDC in French and Italian). The last time the SVP were at the center of such a political storm was when they led a call for the banning of minarets (mosques) in the country: "We don't want minarets," said SVP member of parliament Oskar Freysinger. "The minaret is a symbol of a political and aggressive Islam, it's a symbol of Islamic law. The minute you have minarets in Europe it means Islam will have taken over". Despite this almost absurdly simplistic rhetoric and action the SVP is currently leading in polls and looks likely to form the next government in Switzerland. The Guardian calls the SVP campaign "racist, Europhobic, isolationist - Switzerland for the (white) Swiss". "Foreigners", many of whom are born in Switzerland but are denied citizenship, comprise a quarter of the Swiss workforce and make up around 20% of the population of more than seven million.
