Artbootik opened its doors 17 November 2011, with inexpensive and fun art for your apartment. Just up from the lakefront at 19, rue du Nant.
Immigrants becoming Swiss: waiting in line for the ceremony to begin (photo: Ellen Wallace)
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The 23 October 2011 elections in Switzerland are now likely to include a right-wing popular initiative (citizen-launched vote) to limit immigration and re-negotiate the Schengen accord with the European Union.
Swiss citizens vote on several popular initiatives a year. This latest one is being launched by the UDC Swiss People’s Party, which voted 396-0 Saturday 28 May at a meeting in Einsiedeln, not far from Zurich, to protect the Swiss economy from what it sees as too great a burden imposed by foreigners immigrating into or working in Switzerland.
The UDC is known in German as the SVP.
Job quotas for frontaliers would be introduced
Frontalier, or cross-border workers are targeted as well: the initiative seeks to re-introduce quotas by country and to limit the numbers of jobs that can be held by workers who live across the border in France, Germany, Austria and Italy. Figures published 26 May show the number of cross-border workers, especially in the Geneva area, growing significantly in the first three months of 2011, after a lull.
The UDC’s declaration Saturday deplores the negative impact on the economy of immigrant workers, while nodding in passing at their contribution to the economy.
“This problematic situation is the result of the free movement of persons with the European Union, a lax approach to family regroupings, the presence of many clandestine people and the increase in the number of asylum seekers,” says the UDC declaration Saturday. “According to forecasts by the Federal Office of Statistics, the population will continue to grow massively until 2035, thanks to immigration. As many as 10 million people could soon be living in Switzerland, if the different scenarios that have been laid out are to be believed.”
Swiss natural population growth, and international immigration: the federal gov’t forecasts
Ed. note: these are part of a series of federal maps, not including one showing inter-cantonal migration. This explains the difference between total growth in cantons such as Vaud, and the sum of natural growth and international migration. Note that the figures are per thousand, so in percentages, natural growth in Vaud, for example, is 1.8 percent, compared to international immigration, which is 8.6 percent. Read more…
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.
Federal Councilor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s Justice and Police minister Thursday called on voters to reject the anti-minaret proposal which will be put to them in a referendum 29 November, saying that it is unconstitutional and runs counter to Swiss values. Eveline Widmer Schlumpf told a press conference that the proposal, from the right-wing UDC of which she was once a member, does not respect Switzerland’s freedom of religious expression. She argues that this means not only that people are free to hold religious beliefs, but also to express them openly and publicly in appropriate places of worship.
Update 12:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The gray line between freedom of speech and racism continues to be toyed with by the Swiss right-wing UDC party while municipalities in Switzerland debate whether or not to stop the group’s campaign posters for an upcoming popular vote. The 26 November referendum with three items includes one to ban the construction of new minarets in the country. The proposal is widely expected to be defeated, based on recent polls, but it could be close.
Basel-City and Lausanne have refused permission for the posters to go up, while Geneva Wednesday afternoon 7 October decided to allow them. Several cities asked the Swiss Federal Commission Against Racism for an opinion, which it issued Wednesday afternoon 7 October. Since then Winterthur, Zurich and Lucerne have decided to allow the posters, but Fribourg has banned them.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s right-wing UDC party is back in the news for its posters: Lausanne 7 October banned the party’s campaign posters that show a Swiss map crowded with minarets and a frowning, heavily veiled woman. The city says the posters are “racist, irrespectful and dangerous.” Basel-City also banned the posters Tuesday and Geneva will decide Wednesday. The Swiss will vote 29 November on a UDC-sponsored popular referendum to ban the construction of new minarets. Two of the six parties are in favour of it and the government is opposed.
The UDC (SVP in German; People’s Party) sparked a heated national debate and gained international attention in 2008 with posters showing several white sheep and a black one for a vote to send foreign criminals back to their home countries. In May 2009 the Swiss high court ruled in the party’s favour over another poster that showed Muslims prostrate in front of the Swiss federal palace in Bern.
Lausanne, Switzerland (20 Minutes, Fre) – The Swiss federal high court will review Monday 27 April charges of racism brought against the country’s right-wing UDC (People’s Party) political party for posters is distributed in canton Valais in 2007. The posters show prostate Muslims at the Swis Parliament building, shown from behind, with the slogan “use your heads, vote UDC.”
