In Switzerland, the far right wins big.

[cali]

This is depressing stuff. From CNN:


GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- A nationalist party rode an anti-immigrant wave to the best showing of any party in parliamentary elections since World War I, while the Greens made gains by appealing to environmental concerns, according to partial results and projections.

In one of the most bitter political campaigns in memory in this usually tolerant Alpine nation, the Swiss People's Party called for a law to throw out entire immigrant families if a child violates national laws.

The party gained seven parliamentary seats in the 200-seat lower house of parliament, while the Green party added five, according to projections from widely respected experts for the state-owned SRG television and radio networks, which base forecasts on voting returns. Results were in from all but one canton, or state.

The Social Democrats, the second-largest party, were the big losers, dropping nine seats.

<snip>

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/22/swiss.vote.ap/index.html

[Heidi]

1. It is disgusting, lemme tell ya.

Call Me Wesley and I refer to Blocher's People's Party "the Swiss Nutty Party."

[LeftishBrit]

2. Horrible news

I'm particularly sad as I have happy memories of visits to Switzerland as a child. Not that they've ever been noted for their political progressiveness; they only gave women the vote in 1971 (and I think that only applied to national elections, and some cantons didn't allow women to vote in local elections for some time after that)! But I don't remember any hate or nastiness, and I would have thought that such a multi-national, multi-lingual society would be somewhat inoculated against xenophobia.

I hope this doesn't infect other places in Europe. At least in Poland, loony President Kaczynski and his (literal!) clone as PM have lost to mainstream Conservatives, which is an improvement in that context.

[Mass]

3. Sad, but they were already the leading party in the parliament.

Good news is that the Green won seats too.

Not sure why CNN calls Switzerland a tolerant nation? Their citizenship and immigration laws are among the most stringent in the continent. A kid growing up in Switzerland from immigrant parents has to leave when they are 18, for example (except if they are rich and self-sufficient, of course). Women only got the right to vote in the late 20th century, and the country is resolutely against being part of Europe.

Nice country for tourists, though, which makes people who visit think that they are tolerant.

[marmar]

4. There was a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.) news segment on just before the election....

about a dramatic rise in anti-immigrant violence in Switzerland. The CBC reporter was talking to an African immigrant wearing bandages from an attack in Zurich. Very scary.