Switzerland's xenophobia

I've never seen or heard about this before but after reading a news article about Switzerland's biggest party and most notorious party - the Swiss People's Party - I've realized what odd politics that are being run in Switzerland.

This party is notorious around the world because of their extreme rhetoric against foreigners (mainly Muslims) and nauseating propaganda. They're behind the ban on minarets (which went through a referendum) and have advertised themselves with ads like these:

"Create safety"


"Stop - Yes for Minaret ban"


"Open the door for abuse? NO!"


"Stop mass immigration!"

They received 28% of the Swiss votes in the recently held federal election - a loss of 2,6% votes compared to the last election.

How come the majority of Swiss people are so intolerant of others? And how come a party this xenophobic and racist can get so much support in the heart of Europe - a continent that housed a certain Adolf Hitler who promoted similar propaganda against people of Jewish heritage which led to the holocaust.

Hasn't Switzerland learned from nazi-Germany?

can you really blame citizens of what is arguably the most prosperous country on the continent (excluding the likes of luxembourg) for not opening their doors to thousands impoverished african/eastern european immigrants?

plus it's not like the swiss are genuinely xenophobic... 25% of their workforce is foreign, they have no problems accepting educated people who want to work

http://wwz.unibas.ch/fileadmin/wwz/redaktion/fai/Publikationen/SwissPoliticalScienceReview2.pdf

and 28% is by no means a majority of swiss people

but posters like those do not have a ps note excluding educated people. If you're being discriminated based on your skin color then you're being exploited in the work place

che wrote:can you really blame citizens of what is arguably the most prosperous country on the continent (excluding the likes of luxembourg) for not opening their doors to thousands impoverished african/eastern european immigrants?

plus it's not like the swiss are genuinely xenophobic... 25% of their workforce is foreign, they have no problems accepting educated people who want to work

http://wwz.unibas.ch/fileadmin/wwz/redaktion/fai/Publikationen/SwissPoliticalScienceReview2.pdf

and 28% is by no means a majority of swiss people

You're right about the majority argument; I worded that poorly, but when a ban for minarets was successful based on a referendum, (where the initial proposal came from this party) I'd say it's fair to argue that the majority of the Swiss people are intolerant against foreigners (at least those of Muslim heritage).

Swiss voters have supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets, official results show.

More than 57% of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favour of the ban.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8385069.stm

As for Switzerland being most prosperous in Europe ... I'm not sure I can agree with that. Perhaps you could elaborate on what they're most prosperous at?

Actually, it's their homeland. If they don't want minorets to be built there then they don't
Countries don't accomodate foreigners and their cultures for no reason, either their birth rate is low or they need injection of specific type of people

che wrote:can you really blame citizens of what is arguably the most prosperous country on the continent (excluding the likes of luxembourg) for not opening their doors to thousands impoverished african/eastern european immigrants?

plus it's not like the swiss are genuinely xenophobic... 25% of their workforce is foreign, they have no problems accepting educated people who want to work

http://wwz.unibas.ch/fileadmin/wwz/redaktion/fai/Publikationen/SwissPoliticalScienceReview2.pdf

and 28% is by no means a majority of swiss people

This

zizzle wrote:but posters like those do not have a ps note excluding educated people. If you're being discriminated based on your skin color then you're being exploited in the work place

And when the biggest political party in the country is behind such posters, it's difficult not to feel discriminated against. All of those posters symbolize blacks as being the problem.

babun1024 wrote:Actually, it's their homeland. If they don't want minorets to be built there then they don't
Countries don't tolerate foreigners for no reason, either their birth rate is low or they need injection of specific type of people

Based on those posters alone it seems like the intolerance against foreigners in Switzerland is all about skin color. Unless by "specific type of people" you mean non-blacks.

That they also value a referendum on minarets of all things also reeks intolerance.

Its funny because their country was partly built on money stolen by third world dictators and public officials.

I dont care if switzerland is facist or not (it is more so than the rest of europe), but they advertise themselves as being the opposite.

Senor Penguin wrote:
You're right about the majority argument; I worded that poorly, but when a ban for minarets was successful based on a referendum, (where the initial proposal came from this party) I'd say it's fair to argue that the majority of the Swiss people are intolerant against foreigners (at least those of Muslim heritage).

sure, i didn't say i agree with the policy, just that i do see it's point... call me xenophobic if you want but a large influx of immigrants who don't contribute to the society would send the economy of any country down the shitter

As for Switzerland being most prosperous in Europe ... I'm not sure I can agree with that. Perhaps you could elaborate on what they're most prosperous at?

per capita gdp, quality of life index, median income... generally they're placed in top spots... i know that this doesn't mean everything but as far as quantitative statistics of prosperity go it's as good as it gets

oh and you really need to stop looking for racism everywhere... for all we know (and it's a reasonable assumption), the people's party is trying to keep out ukrainians just as well as algerians... can you think of a better "we vs them" metaphor than kicking out a black sheep?

again, i'm not saying i agree with it, they're definitely pushing tolerance to the limit, but i understand why they feel that way

che wrote:oh and you really need to stop looking for racism everywhere... for all we know (and it's a reasonable assumption), the people's party is trying to keep out ukrainians just as well as algerians... can you think of a better "we vs them" metaphor than kicking out a black sheep?

again, i'm not saying i agree with it, they're definitely pushing tolerance to the limit, but i understand why they feel that way

well, those posters make the skin color seem like main issue, though the black sheep could be a metaphore...

che wrote:

Senor Penguin wrote:
You're right about the majority argument; I worded that poorly, but when a ban for minarets was successful based on a referendum, (where the initial proposal came from this party) I'd say it's fair to argue that the majority of the Swiss people are intolerant against foreigners (at least those of Muslim heritage).

sure, i didn't say i agree with the policy, just that i do see it's point... call me xenophobic if you want but a large influx of immigrants who don't contribute to the society would send the economy of any country down the shitter

There are evidently valid ways you can argue a stance against immigration but doing it the way this party does only puts fuel on a fire, creating even poorer integration and eventually creating more support for their agenda.

The frightening thing is that this party has been on the rise at every election since 1987. It's the first time that they've actually lost a couple of voters during this year's election and that's probably because a handful of people from the same party decided to split up and create their own.

As for Switzerland being most prosperous in Europe ... I'm not sure I can agree with that. Perhaps you could elaborate on what they're most prosperous at?

per capita gdp, quality of life index, median income... generally they're placed in top spots... i know that this doesn't mean everything but as far as quantitative statistics of prosperity go it's as good as it gets

Bullsh*te. Just admit that the Scandinavian countries are overall the most prosperous. If I had to hand it to someone, it would probably be Sweden.

oh and you really need to stop looking for racism everywhere... for all we know (and it's a reasonable assumption), the people's party is trying to keep out ukrainians just as well as algerians... can you think of a better "we vs them" metaphor than kicking out a black sheep?

The "black" theme is clearly recurring in their advertisements. Black crows taking a bite out of Switzerland? Black people walking all over the Swiss flag? Black sheep getting kicked out of Switzerland by white sheep?

But let's just be naive and assume "black" is just the color they needed for contrast in their campaign ads ...

Let's analyze this:


And here's the exact same ad, just ... edited a bit:


If that isn't obvious then I don't know what is.

If you're really worried, then join another party
http://www.anti-powerpoint-party.com/