Anti-immigration SVP wins Swiss election in swing to right
Joshua Franklin of Reuters reports that the anti-immigration Swiss People’s Party (SVP) is projected to win the biggest share of the vote in yesterday’s national parliamentary election. Success for the SVP, coupled with gains made by the pro-business Liberal Party (FDP), led political commentators to talk of a “Rechtsrutsch” – a “slide to the right” – in Swiss politics. Immigration was the central topic for voters amid the publicity about the large number of asylum seekers from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe.
Poster, with the slogan “To Create Security”, derived from the SVP’s 2007 proposal of a new law which would authorize the deporation of criminal foreigners
In its immigration platform, the SVP is committed itself to make asylum laws stricter and to reduce immigration. The SVP warns of immigration sapping the scarce resources of the public benefit and social welfare system. Recent victories of the SVP include the federal popular initiatives “for the expulsion of criminal foreigners” (52.3%), and “Against mass immigration” (50.3%) in 2010 and 2014 respectively.
Another key concern of the SVP is what it alleges is an increasing influence of the judiciary on politics. According to the SVP, this influence, especially through international law, increasingly puts the Swiss direct democracy in question.
KJ