Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Forty-four of Canton Geneva’s 45 communes Sunday 17 April elected their town managers, leaving the Left firmly in power, in the city of Geneva but also in a majority of its neighbouring communes.
The city of Geneva elected four Socialists to its Executif: Sami Kanaan, noted for his closeness to outgoing magistrate Manuel Tornare, received the most votes, with a Socialist, Sandrine Salerno, a Green, Esther Alder and a member of Ensemble à gauche, Rémy Pagani just behind him.
Onex elected Eric Stauffer, the only commune to vote in a member of the MCG party. It made headlines in March 2011 when 11 MCG members were voted onto Geneva’s local parliament, but its abrasive approach left it without enough allies to put in a similar strong performance this weekend.
Elections in local media: Le Temps (registration), TDG, TSR
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Geneva political party MCG just cannot get its poster right for the 28 November popular referendum vote on shipping out foreigners who commit serious crimes. The Tribune de Geneve announced Tuesday 2 November it is billing the party for copyright infringement for using a photo from the newspaper on a poster.
First the party, which labels itself “not left, not right, Geneva first”, was blasted by regional media in October for using the poster to inflame racism, with its excerpts from cantonal police reports that give nationalities of people arrested.
Then the Geneva government, the Conseil d’Etat, told the party to change its poster because of a line and photo at the bottom considered to be potentially damaging to the national interest: “He wants to destroy Switzerland” next to a photo of Libya’s leader.
The image of Qaddafi may not be used in controversial poster says the Swiss federal government (this is not such a poster)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Mouvement des Citoyens Genevois, MCG, a populist right-wing political party says they will appeal a decision that forbids them from displaying a controversial poster featuring Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi.
Francois Longchamp, president of the Geneva executive council, told the Tribune de Geneve, that the canton is very flexible when it comes to political advertising but that prohibiting the posters was “in the best interest of the State”.
“In this case, a country and its president are named, thus infringing on article 296 of the Swiss penal code,” said Longchamp. Article 296 refers to “insults to foreign states”.
Federal prosecutors have now confiscated the posters and are considering charges of insult to a foreign state against MCG. The posters were to be used in the campaign in favor of deporting foreign criminals.
Geneva elections, Socialists lose seat
Update 15:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Cantonal elections in Geneva for the executive council, the Conseil d’état, confirmed a rightward shift in the political mood, Sunday 15 November. The centre-right alliance won four of the seven seats, while the centre-left won three. Two women are on the council, and extremists on either side of the spectrum were eliminated.
On the centre-right: the Radical party’s François Longchamp, Christian Democrat Pierre-François Unger and the Liberal party’s Mark Muller were re-elected. They were joined by newly elected Liberal Isabel Rochat.
French Alps, seen from Celigny, Vaud in Switzerland
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Frontaliers (cross-border workers) are said by some to be at the root of many of Geneva’s social problems, from traffic to crime to unemployment. These concerns among Geneva’s voters were reflected in last weekend’s elections to the cantonal parliament, or Grand Conseil, which gave the right-wing Mouvement des Cityoyens Genevois (MCG) an increase of 8 seats to 17, out of 100.
Le Temps asks in a lengthy article 16 October if there is any truth to the concerns that MCG raises, namely that frontaliers cause the problems of which they are accused.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Eric Stauffer says he will rid the streets of Geneva of beggars within 45 days of being elected to the cantonal government, if he is elected 15 November. The leader of the Mouvement des Citoyens Genevois (MCG) party which was the undeniable winner of Sunday’s 11 October elections to the cantonal parliament, or Grand Conseil, said on early morning radio 12 October that if elected to the seven-person cabinet, he will work to remove beggars from the streets.
