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Switzerland's most popular political party has added a hard edge to the campaign for a parliamentary election in October with a controversial initiative to extradite foreigners who commit serious crimes.
The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), which won over a quarter of the vote in the 2003 parliamentary election, has plastered towns and cities with cartoon-like posters calling for the "black sheep" in Swiss society to be booted out.
The party is seeking 100,000 signatures in support of the so-called "Extradition Initiative", enough to force the issue to a referendum. However, the posters and flyers sent to four million Swiss homes are also likely to influence October's vote.
The SVP has in the past campaigned against bogus asylum seekers and warned of the "Muslimisation" of Switzerland. Its campaign for the 2003 election was criticised by the United Nations' refugee agency for its racist overtones, and the latest campaign has also ruffled official feathers.
"Hopefully civil society will react against this poster campaign in their voting so that this becomes an own goal for the SVP and reveals their bad side," said Georg Kreis, president of the government-backed Federal Commission against Racism.
The city of Geneva, in the French-speaking west where the SVP is hoping to pick up votes on October 21, issued an unusually strong condemnation of the posters this week.
"The city council strongly disapproves of the simplistic argumentation, which conveys an image likely to generate intolerance and exclusion," it said.
Smarting from an arson attack on a synagogue in the city, Geneva stressed its commitment to cultural diversity.
Switzerland's reputation for tolerance has also recently been dented by a campaign against minarets and by neo-Nazi activity.
The SVP - the biggest party in Switzerland by share of the popular vote - denies its campaign is xenophobic.
"Other foreigners who follow the law and behave well are welcome," SVP spokesman Roman Jaeggi said.
According to Jaeggi, the campaign has been welcomed by many foreigners living in Switzerland who do not wish to be associated with "those who don't abide by the rules".
Anti-racism campaigners say the posters reflect a trend among Europe's more extreme right-wing political parties of drawing links between immigration and crime.
"Where is the sociological evidence that foreigners commit more crimes?" asked Liz Fereke of the Institute for Race Relations, a British-based charity.
In Switzerland, foreigners are indeed over-represented in official crime statistics, although that may result from the fact that more foreigners than Swiss tend to be poor, and that a greater proportion are at the peak criminal age of 18 to 35.
Immigration and asylum have long been grist for Europe's right-wing parties.
Fereke said European voters, even those on the right, were increasingly comfortable with asylum seekers.
However, since September 11, terrorism and security have become potent buzzwords - even in neutral Switzerland. "There is a renewed emphasis on foreigners and criminality," said Fereke. "After 9/11 it's easy to play on fears that foreigners undermine security because they might be terrorists."
- Reuters
