Swiss voters have decisively rejected a proposal by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) that would have made it more difficult for foreigners to become Swiss citizens. The controversial initiative, which was opposed by the churches and the Jewish community in Switzerland, aimed to give local communities the power to decide by anonymous vote which immigrants should be granted Swiss citizenship passport, with no right of appeal. In Sunday's referendum, only 36 per cent of voters backed the SVP line; 64 per cent supported the federal government's proposal.
The SVP and its deputy leader Christoph Blocher, who was ejected from the Swiss government by the Federal Assembly in December 2007, have long campaigned on an anti-immigration platform. Foreigners make up 20 per cent of the Swiss population, and the latest referendum is the sixth time the SVP has launched a vote on the issue. Many observers accused Blocher's party of stirring xenophobia. Switzerland already has very restrictive laws in place regarding immigration and naturalization.
