SWITZERLAND:Switzerland's general elections are normally polite, orderly affairs, but the campaign ahead of next month's vote has turned dirty, with accusations of racism and xenophobia in the air.
The nationalist People's Party (VP) has come under fire for election posters that have been compared to Nazi propaganda, while a federal commission has described the country's stiff naturalisation process as discriminatory, arbitrary and often racist.
The controversial election poster relates to a People's Party proposal to allow the deportation of an entire family of non-Swiss citizens if one family member is found guilty of a criminal offence.
The poster to illustrate the proposal shows three white sheep kicking a black sheep from a Swiss flag with the headline "For More Security".
VP party officials claim that non-Swiss residents, who make up one-fifth of the population, are four times more likely to commit a crime than Swiss nationals.
Immigration groups have said the claim is based on inaccurate figures and accuse the party of deliberately reviving the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft, or kin liability. The UN High Commission for Refugees has said the proposal would breach the UN refugee convention, as well as Switzerland's own constitution.
Switzerland has some of the world's tightest immigration laws.
Candidates for naturalisation must have lived in the country for 12 years and then must appear before a town committee to answer questions. Citizens of the community then vote on whether to accept or reject the applicant.
The Federal Commission on Racial Discrimination (EKR) has attacked this system, saying that Muslim applicants, as well as immigrants from the Balkans and Africa, were the most likely to be rejected.
In a report it cited the case of a disabled man from Kosovo who met all criteria for Swiss citizenship but who was rejected, the report's authors said, because he was Muslim, and because locals felt his disability would be a burden on tax payers.
The EKR recommended that applications in future be decided by committee and not by vote.
Swiss officials defended yesterday the practice of direct democracy, where multiple issues are put to the vote, although they admitted it can "sometimes lead to exaggerated, regrettable views being expressed".
Three years ago, the People's Party campaigned successfully in a referendum to tighten immigration laws with a poster showing black hands reaching into a pot filled with Swiss passports.
