03 September 2007
Switzerland's biggest political party has come under fire for racist and xenophobic campaigning after its posters featured black sheep and its proposals to deport immigrants were likened by anti-racism campaigners to Nazi practices. The nationalist People's party, which controls the lower house of the Swiss parliament, has run an advertising campaign showing three white sheep on a Swiss flag kicking out a black sheep with the caption ‘For more security’. The party, which controls the justice ministry and is part of Switzerland's governing coalition, is proposing a scheme to deport immigrant families if their children are convicted of a violent crime, drug offences or benefit fraud. It claims immigrants, which make up 20% of the population, are four times more likely to commit crimes than Swiss nationals. The party is trying to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to force a referendum on the scheme.
Ronnie Bernheim of the Swiss Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism said the proposal was similar to the Nazi practice of ‘Sippenhaft’ -- or kin liability -- whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for his or her crimes and punished equally.
