Swiss reject controversial proposal to expel foreigners who commit crimes

The referendum had been polling well last year, but it drove voter turnout and was ultimately rejected by a majority of voters.

Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to automatically expel foreigners who commit even low-level crimes, according to results, handing a setback to a popular nationalist party that had put forward the measure.

The initiative was rejected Sunday by 59 percent of voters, the government Web site showed. It was the most controversial of a number of national and local issues in the referendum, propelling voter turnout to top more than 62 percent — which the state broadcaster said was the highest turnout since 1992.

The outcome comes as a blow to the Swiss People's Party, which had campaigned for the plan, and was a turnaround from opinion polls last year.

The Swiss government had opposed the measure. Federal councilor Simonetta Sommaruga praised a push by advocacy groups to help rebuff the measure, telling RTS television that voters had sent the message: "Human rights are important in our country: They should not be restricted."

Under the proposal, Swiss law would have been changed to make expulsion part of the sentence for any foreigner, whether for severe crimes like murder or low-level crimes such as threatening officials or giving false testimony — if committed twice in a ten-year span.

A broad coalition of political parties and legal experts had rejected the plan, saying it would effectively create a two-tier justice system that treats Switzerland's two million or so foreigners — about a quarter of the population — more harshly.

Public debate over the issue was unusually fierce by Swiss standards. The People's Party's campaign posters showed a white sheep atop a Swiss flag, kicking away a black sheep. Opponents of the measure released an electronic ad at train stations showing a tattered swastika next to a large "No" to the referendum.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Swiss reject controversial proposal to expel foreigners who commit crimes
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2016/0228/Swiss-reject-controversial-proposal-to-expel-foreigners-who-commit-crimes
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe