Swiss reject xenophobic initiative

Geneva: Swiss voters rejected a right-wing initiative aimed at making it harder for foreigners to gain citizenship, official results showed on Saturday.

The initiative, launched by the nationalist Swiss People's Party, failed to win the majority of the cantons (states), with most reporting clear "no" votes. Only one of Switzerland's 26 cantons (states) approved the initiative, according to the final results.

A majority of the cantons would have been required in addition to an overall majority of votes.

State-owned Swiss television, which normally provides reliable projections, said 64 per cent of the Swiss voted against the campaign.

The initiative wanted to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that barred the widely denounced practice in some Swiss communities of subjecting citizenship applications to a popular vote.

Supporters of the initiative said they were disappointed.

Hans Fehr, a People's Party lawmaker, said "the message didn't pass enough that we want the citizens to decide on this important issue." He said the requirements for Swiss citizenship should be raised.

The campaign poster for the initiative's supporters revived the imagery of brown hands clutching passports that helped the party succeed in a similar campaign to curb naturalisations in 2004.

More than 20 per cent of the 7.5 million population in Switzerland is foreign - one of the highest percentages in Europe.

But there has been a dramatic increase in the number of naturalisations in recent years. The figure was 47,607 in 2006, compared with 6,183 in 1990, even though only one per cent of Switzerland's foreigners apply for citizenship each year.

Discrimination

Immigration to the Alpine nation in recent years has included a surge in white-collar Germans and other Europeans who have no interest in changing passports.

In Switzerland each canton decides the process by which foreigners can become Swiss citizens, but applicants must have lived here for twelve years. Rejected applicants can appeal to the Supreme Court if they claim discrimination or violation of other basic rights.

If Swiss voters had adopted the right-wing initiative, local communities could again have subjected naturalisation candidates to a popular vote, this time without possibility of appeal.

The Federal Tribunal abolished community votes on immigrants five years ago after a referendum in the Swiss town of Emmen rejected 48 Eastern European and Turkish candidates for citizenship.