I'm afraid you have got things wrong. I don't know who you mean by SD, but the SP (Social-democratic Party) are the 2nd largest party and are totally opposed to the SVP's anti foreigner campaign. This link shows the estimated strengths of the parties:

http://sf.epb.prokons.com/?markt=CH-2007-NR

No two parties add up to a majority.

The SD (Swiss Democrats) are an anti-immigration party. The SVP's rise partly happened at their cost. On the national level, they currently hold one seat in the big chamber of parliament (out of 200 seats) and none in the small (of 52). Their nation-wide voter support is about 1%.

So where does it suggest that SVP + SD have 50% of the vote ?

Nobody did, harshapaulraj just confused the Swiss Democrats and the Social Democrats.

Interesting to note that one of the UK's most right wing newpapers is hardly sympathetic towards the current extremes of Swiss politics..

=Swiss election sparks riots and racism=


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../wswiss113.xml

BBC world today announced that CH is at the bottom end of the pile along with Latvia etc. when it comes to integration of foreigners
http://www.integrationindex.eu/integ...ndex/2616.html
Switzerland lacks a dedicated anti-discrimination law. The definitions of anti-discrimination cover religion/belief and race/ethnicity but not nationality. Only a limited number of actors can be punished for discriminating, leaving many outside the law. Moreover, anti-discrimination laws do not apply in any of the fields of life measured by MIPEX, a critical weakness for Switzerland. Enforcement mechanisms score exactly halfway to best practice. They have access to various procedures and a wide range of possible penalties for guilty parties. Yet it is evident that complainants who bring forward a case are not protected from victimisation in the many fields of life. They also do not benefit from legal aid or shifts in the burden of proof. Equality policies keep the specialised equality agency out of the courtroom by limiting its powers to advising victims or investigating their cases.

__________________
Death is an insult to my intelligence

The BBC is still on the case....

dave

The state prosecutors in Kt. Zürich have dropped the legal action against the black sheep posters on the grounds that they are not racially discriminating, simply anti-foreigner.

http://tages-anzeiger.ch/dyn/news/schweiz/802759.html

So it's legal to hate foreigners, as long as you hate them all, equally .

“I am free of all prejudices. I hate everyone equally.” - WC Fields

Frank Zappa is also credited with the same quote.

dave

From todays Swissinfo, this.

Nope, the Daily Telegraph is no way "one of the UK's most right wing newspapers". Try the Dailyl Mail or Express if that is what you want. Both of those make me want to puke.

Is anyone else here getting sick of the Swiss bashing?

Personally speaking, I found that by coming here I could escape from the preconceptions, prejudices and generally parochial attitudes I found in the UK.

If the Telegraph, traditionally known as the house newspaper of the Conservative party, is not considered to be right wing then I don't know what is. My point was that the right wing in Britain has little sympathy with the extreme politics (right & left wing) that we are witnessing here.

I'm also sad about the mauling that Switzerland is getting in the foreign press. It's just the extreme factions, both right and left which are hitting the headlines. It does tend to dent the image of Switzerland and the party that is the primary cause of all this doesn't seem to care about that.....

Incidentally here's the latest from the BBC, who try to be neutral...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3206778.stm


I'm sure you must know that there are few places on this earth where you can escape from such attitudes, and Switzerland isn't one of them.

Unfortunately, the xenophobia will not stop after the election, because this "Security Creation Initiative" will then be submitted for a referendum.

Not for a while. They used to be the Daily Torygraph, but here's a quote from the latest issue of Private Eye:

Well I never ! So Gordon Brown's recent courtships include the Daily Telegraph and Margaret Thatcher. Does this turn Cameron red ?

I know - you can't trust anyone any more...

But you used the phrase "most right wng".

The BBC can try to be as neutral as they will have their audience believe, but they have consistently failed to be so since the mid 1990s when they had a clear out of some of their best political correspondents.

The one thing that seemed totally out of kilter with the normal standard of Telegraph articles was the gratuitous mention of rubber bullets, implying that they had been used the other weekend. Biased reporting or what?, and my BS filter kicked in big time.

Much appreciated thanks. Gordon Brown has for a long time hated Switzerland's stance on banking confidentiality because they won't let him poke into the details of accounts held here, so the current attack by the DT makes sense now.

Let us not forget that a very large chunk of the UK media (Sky, Sun, Times to quote just 3) is owned by the Murdoch empire.

That'll be the end of free speech in the UK press then?

As already mentioned, you are mixing up the SP with the SD. the SP are the social democrats who are the second largest party atm. The SD has pretty much vanished from the national scene since the SVP started to integrate their ideology into theirs....

Anyway, it really saddens me that all this election campaign boils down to is pro-/contra Blocher and the immigration issue. As if we didn't have other problems.
Sadly it seems that the parties that are acutally focusing on issues seem to lose more and more votes in the polls

It is understandable in an expat forum but I agree, Switzerland should move on.

Here's a leading article that doesn't see that dark for the middle parties, to cheer you up. (You've cast your vote, have you? )

it is undestandable here, yes. But I wasn't really referring to the forum, but to the campaign everywhere, including the local media. All that seems to be debated its black sheep and Blocher....

yeah, there's always hope and no, I haven't voted yet, but will