Speaking of EU-related referendums, there’s another one coming up on Sunday: Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU, will be deciding whether to join the Schengen Agreement, the treaty which abolishes border controls within the continental EU countries.
Business and the government in Bern are in the Yes camp, which was until recently expected to win easily.
But the No camp, lead by the far right Schweizerische Volkspartei (SVP) has been surging lately. Der Spiegel describes (in German) a xenophobic campaign that has been invoking a flood asylum seekers that would invade Switzerland if it drops its border controls; has highlighted a European Commissioner’s “foreign-sounding“ name, and has been pulled a replica Trojan Horse around Switzerland to warn of the secret invasion of immigrants that they fear would occur if the Yes camp wins.
Monday Update: 55 percent voted Yes.
That begs the question: foreign to where?
Indeed. The point was that they stressed a name that was clearly “other” as far as a Swiss nativist would see it. The Commissioner in question was Dalia Grybauskaite, who is from Lithuania. Not very French-, German- or Italian-sounding, I guess.
Doch hat aus meiner Sicht “Grybauskaite” etwas markant deutsch an sich…