Switzerland Swings to Right, as Anti-Immigration Party Wins Election

[Purveyor]

Source: Reuters

ZURICH (Reuters) - The anti-immigration Swiss People's Party (SVP) won the biggest share of the vote in Sunday's national parliamentary election, projections showed, keeping pressure on Bern to introduce quotas on people moving from the European Union.

Success for the Swiss People's Party (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 a rush of asylum seekers from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe.

"The vote was clear," SVP leader Toni Brunner told Swiss television. "The people are worried about mass migration to Europe."

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/switzerland-swings-right-election-384575

[MisterP]

1. Zeegh cheil! Zeegh cheil!

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/53109b11e4b05040160f0a8f/t/54095dbbe4b007c798426738/1409899967739/?format=750w

[LittleGirl]

2. refugees couldn't afford the Swiss

life. We're looking to leave and have only been here a year. Everything is so freaking expensive. Food, clothing, shelter, everything.

[DFW]

3. You mean a simple lunch for two at $85 is a little stiff? LOL!!

I have to be there at the end of this week, but I'm not there much any more. That has nothing to do with the cost of living, but our man in Geneva (one of the friendly natives) has been with us for over thirty years now, and hasn't needed me to hold his hand for decades now--except when it comes to speaking Schwyzerdüütsch (I can, he can't).

But it's true--the cost of living there--especially if you're not working there and getting paid on a Swiss scale, is way out of whack. The population of Switzerland is less than the population of New York City. Its welfare system was designed to handle its own population, not that of Switzerland plus Romania, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Albania, etc. Switzerland IS part of Schengen, so people can travel in from the EU without border controls, but it is not a member of the EU, so it is not required to treat people from the outside with all the same rights that Swiss citizens enjoy. But they come in droves anyway. A jump in rightward-leaning votes was an inevitable consequence of joining Schengen. Even the Swiss find life in their country expensive. Foreigners (maybe with the exception of Norwegians) find it, as you said, freaking expensive. Anyone looking for asylum may find some sympathy, but if they find anything better they among the lucky few.

[LittleGirl]

5. exactly!

We rarely eat out because a simple meal is 100 swiss francs. That would be a salad, a main course and one glass of wine a piece so for two of us, 100 bucks! Our apartment isn't that big but is 2500 a month and my husband is just sick of it. We live close enough to Germany and get our groceries there because a simple head of brocolli here is 3 bucks or more. Every damn thing is twice what we would pay in Germany or France (which is also close by) and we just can't justify the cost of living and can't save a freaking dime. Sure we could move to Germany but moving would cost us at least 1000 bucks too, not including the deposit of a new place. It's so frustrating. We really wanted to make it work here but it's just not. Sadly.

[uawchild]

7. great report of conditions there, thanks

And when you wrote "the population of Switzerland is less than the population of New York City. Its welfare system was designed to handle its own population, not that of Switzerland plus Romania, Bulgaria, Kosovo and Albania, etc.", I thought it encapsulated the dilemma that similarly small, and certainly less rich, European countries like Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary face.

[LittleGirl]

6. Welcome to DU. eom

[patsimp]

8. I'm pro-immigration - but countries will not stand by and have

immigrants come in and change all the existing culture.

I feel for the people of Syria - but the problem is caused by the barbaric isis and their religious fanaticism. Some of the refugees will bring some variant of fanaticism and intolerance with them into their hosting countries.

The Boston Marathon bombers were Muslim refugees from Chechnya. The murderous brothers were supported by an equally ungrateful mother and from what I can tell sister.

People may say the numbers are small, but this one family, allowed in through the kindness of the United States, killed many innocent people.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Yeah, I figured some backlash was coming sooner or later...

[bikebloke]

10. Switzerland has always been right.

Back in the 80's I had friends in Switzerland. Instead of a president, they have a federal council of seven. My friends called them The Seven Reagans.

[pampango]

11. The left did not jump on board with the anti-immigrant hysteria and paid the price.

On Sunday, the populist Swiss People's Party (SVP), known for its virulent campaigns against immigration, the EU and Islam, won 65 of the 200 seats in the lower house, up from a current 54, and saw its support rise to its highest level ever.

The SVP raked in 29.4 percent of the vote, compared to the 26.6 percent it won in 2011 and beating its previous record of 28.9 percent in 2007, according to the Swiss media SRF. It was the best performance by a party in at least a century.

Along with advances made by the centre-right Liberal Party, Switzerland's third-largest party, which took three additional seats on top of its current 30, SVP's gains should tip the scale in parliament from the centre-left towards a centre-right majority.

The Socialists, the country's second-largest party, lost three of their 46 seats and the Greens and Green Liberal Party lost a total of nine seats.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/10/anti-immigration-party-wins-swiss-elections-151019061203931.html

It is heartening to see the left stay true to its multi-cultural beliefs but they paid the price for it. As always, it raises the question of whether we should beat the right by adopting some of their policies or doing a better job of planning, implementing and explaining liberal policies.