Word: svp
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Gallen, a conservative provincial town one hour east of Zurich, the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) had its campaign posters - bearing the caricatured features of a black man and the slogan the SWISS ARE THE NEGROES OF SWITZERLAND - all ready to go. But amid accusations of racism, party officials withdrew the posters from their campaign for national parliamentary elections...
...Katumba, 32, is right - and not everyone in Switzerland is happy about it. The dramatic increase in the country's foreign-born population is fueling the popularity of the SVP, the furthest to the right of the major parties. Some 20% of Switzerland's population is foreign-born, one of the highest percentages in Europe, and last year more than 26,000 asylum seekers and refugees came to the country - costing the government j590 million. As it has in the past, the SVP is making immigration (legal and otherwise) a hot-button issue. But this time around the party...
...Started in 1971 and led by Christoph Blocher, 63, the head of Swiss chemicals company EMS-Chemie Holding AG, the SVP has always been staunchly opposed to opening Switzerland's borders to asylum seekers and immigrants. Pre-election opinion polls indicate that this issue preoccupies a large number of Swiss, many of whom also believe that closer European integration will open up the country to more foreigners. The SVP is making the most of the electoral opportunity. "More and more people believe that we can make a positive difference in their lives," says Aliki Panayides, the SVP's deputy secretary...
...Elsewhere in Europe, populist parties become part of coalition governments that blunt the sharper edges of their policies. But in Switzerland's referendum-based version of direct democracy, the SVP could use a victory as a bully pulpit from which to call for more anti-immigration referendums. "The Swiss system based on grassroots participation is a double-edged sword," says Thomas Held, director of Avenir Suisse, an independent social and economic think tank. "The danger is that the party will overdramatize the issues and frighten the voters into rejecting reforms or adopting restrictive measures, as is the case with...
...latest polls show U.N. supporters with a big lead. Last June voters approved a controversial initiative allowing Swiss troops on peacekeeping missions to carry weapons, despite SVP's cries that such a move would compromise the country's neutrality. The government is hoping the same open-minded attitude will lead to a "yes" vote on March 3. "If it doesn't," Nordmann says, "the world would not understand why we insist on keeping our head buried in the sand." Given Switzerland's geography, that is particularly hard...