Word: svp
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...controversial initiative was forced by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), which put up the poster that unsettled Nesim and has collected the obligatory 100,000 signatures required under Swiss law to put a constitutional amendment to a national vote. It seeks to overturn a 2003 Federal Court ruling that deemed ballot box votes on naturalization an infringement on the rights of would-be citizens. The decision was handed down after residents of the town of Emmen in central Switzerland repeatedly voted to reject citizenship applications from non-Western European nationals living in their midst...
...Blocher's tactful departure is not resonating within the SVP. In a terse statement posted by the country's leading party on its website, it accuses legislators of retaliating against Blocher out of "jealousy and frustration over our successes." And because the lawmakers replaced Blocher with a moderate member of his own party, who might try to blunt the sharper edges of her predecessor's hard-line policies rather than toe the official stance, the SVP has threatened to leave the government and form an opposition party. The move would undermine Switzerland's 50-year-old "magic formula" under which...
...However, political analysts like Lutz believe the talk of opposition is pure braggadocio. "The SVP has been threatening and bullying politicians and population for a long time," he says...
...Fleiner says that even though it has nearly one-third of seats in the parliament, the SVP would not be able to sustain itself outside of the coalition government. "No opposition party will win wide popular support as long as only 30 percent of the electorate are behind...
...terms of Switzerland's image abroad, where Blocher's antics have been generating headlines, no major changes are expected either. "We are not known around the world for the SVP or Blocher," Lutz says. "We are known for Roger Federer and chocolate...