Word: svp
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...heart of the controversy is the Swiss People's Party (SVP), the dominant force in the outgoing parliament. Last month it pasted thousands of posters across the country depicting three white sheep kicking out one black sheep from a paddock, with the slogan: "For more security." The poster became the parade example for furious accusations that the SVP was fomenting racism. Early this month, at a demonstration in the capital, Bern, hundreds of protesters pelted SVP members with rocks; police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd...
...SVP's message seems to have hit home with voters. The party has widened its lead since the poster campaign rolled out, according to the Gfs Research Institute, whose October 14 poll put the SVP ahead at 27.3%, compared with its nearest rival, the Social Democratic Party, at 21.7%. Of the 2,021 voters polled by the organization for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, 39.9% said they intended to vote for one of two center-right parties, and 10% said they would vote for the Greens. Ultimately Switzerland is likely to remain governed by four major parties, even if the SVP...
...seven. I got my Swiss passport only two years ago," says Kocakir Abdurrahman, 37, a Turkish taxi driver in Zurich. Abdurrahman said he had mailed his ballot last week, in his first vote as a Swiss citizen - for the Social Democrats. Explaining his choice, he says: "The SVP is racist...
...SVP says their target is not all foreigners, but those who commit serious crimes like rape and murder; they point out that about 70% of those in Swiss prisons are foreign-born residents. Schlüer says that the waves of African and Balkan refugees during the past two decades are evidence enough of Switzerland's openness. "Integration is a success," he says. Yet it is largely because of its anti-immigrant stance that the party's ranks have soared; the SVP has nearly doubled its members of parliament since 1995, from 29 to 55 this year. That number could...
...Such solid grass-roots support is likely to maintain the SVP's plurality in parliament - even though the rest of the political class prefers to see it as the black sheep of Swiss politics...