Anti-Immigration Parties Gaining? The Swiss vote fires-up activists in other countries

[wvwvw]

Swiss Freeze: EU Retaliates as Bern Rolls Out Immigration Quotas
By Russia Today
RT.com
February 18, 2014


Brussels has frozen research grants for Swiss universities worth hundreds of millions of euros in retaliation after Switzerland voted to cap the number of immigrants entering the country in a nationwide referendum.

The retaliatory move by the EU comes just one day after Switzerland refused to sign a ‘freedom of movement’ agreement with Croatia, which would have given Croatians unrestricted access to the Swiss employment market.

In addition to ejecting Switzerland from the so-called Horizon 2020, an 80-billion-euro ($109.5 billion) research and innovation program that distributes funds over seven years (2014-2020), Brussels has suspended Switzerland from the Erasmus student exchange program, ATS news agency reported.

In 2011-12, 2,600 Swiss students took advantage of Erasmus, while Switzerland played host to some 2,900 foreign students through the EU-funded exchange program. Erasmus has a 14.7-billion-euro budget through to the year 2020. The Swiss government had hoped to create 8,000 new jobs through the EU grant program, yet an increasing number of Swiss citizens believe the trade-off in terms of higher immigration rates is not worth it.

“Switzerland is on a slippery slope of isolating its students and academics from the outside world,”Elizabeth Gehrke, vice-chairwoman of the European Students’ Union (ESU), said in a statement issued shortly after the referendum. “This could have devastating effects that would be difficult to reverse.”

Swiss fretful in face of open borders

On February 9, the majority of Swiss civilians – albeit by a narrow margin of 50.3 percent – voted in favor of dramatically limiting the number of immigrants from the EU, thus ceasing free movement within the bloc that was established in 2002.

The referendum was a major success for Switzerland’s right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which tapped into the national mood by arguing that more EU citizens moved to the landlocked country of 8 million people than had been initially anticipated, thus putting a squeeze on the national budget.

The SVP wants to make it easier to deport foreigners from the country if they don’t integrate, as well as deny foreigners government services and benefits. The voter turnout of 56 percent was reportedly the highest in decades. Swiss institutions of learning will feel the pinch from Brussels’ tit-for-tat retaliation: Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) said it stands to lose 80 to 100 million francs annually in research grants, while ETH, the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, could experience a similar slash in funding.

Immigration caps: Wave of the future?

Switzerland’s controversial move to limit the number of immigrants says a lot about the increasing anxiety about immigration across Europe. Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), called the results of the Swiss referendum “wonderful news.”

“A wise and strong Switzerland has stood up to the bullying and threats of the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.” Meanwhile, Austria’s far-right FPO party said Austria would vote accordingly if given the choice, while the France’s National Front praised Switzerland’s “lucidity.”

There’s been no shortage of handwringing over multiculturalism in general and the free movement of citizens in particular inside the 28-member union. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s anti-immigration National Front party, is gaining followers among mainstream voters, according to a poll results released this week by TNS-Sofres. Forty-six percent of individuals polled said Le Pen is “the face of patriotic conservatives, with traditional values,” while 43 percent said she leads the “nationalistic, xenophobic extreme right,” the survey showed.

Analysts fear that with tiny Switzerland leading the way in the push to limit the freedom of movement of immigrants inside of the European Union, anti-immigration parties may gain a yet another boost in popularity.
http://rt.com

[Kastrioti1443]

I do not get with what rights can EU enforce laws and policies against Switzerland , if this state does not what more immigrants? With what right?

[Mehmet]

It's good. There are many foreigners in Switzerland. Especially Albanians.

[Kastrioti1443]

It's good. There are many foreigners in Switzerland. Especially Albanians.

Shut the fuck up mongrel tri racial subhuman turk. Albanians have 10 years that do not immigrate in Switzerland anymore. They are all citizen now. they care about mongrels like you, they do not want Turanid-Iranid-Armenoid mongrels like you there.

[Linebacker]

The real Turks are Norid Übermen. Not Armenid wannabes such as you.

[Jackson]

Thank you Switzerland.

[Moonbird]

At least one of Norway's ruling parties wants to follow suit:

Norway ruling party calls for 'Swiss' migrant vote

One of Norway's two government parties has called for a Swiss-style referendum on measures to restrict immigration, in a further sign that Switzerland's shock decision will have knock-on effects elsewhere in Europe.

Mazyar Keshvari, immigration policy spokesman for the anti-immigration Progress Party, told the VG newspaper that he believed Norway should follow Switzerland's example.

"Norway should also have a referendum on immigration," he said. "I am quite sure that there is majority support for tightening immigration across Norway's political parties. The polls show that."

On Sunday, the Swiss voted with a razor-thin 50.3 percent majority to limit immigration by drawing up immigration quotas, surprising the country's establishment.

The decision has provoked calls for similar quotas from far-right parties elsewhere in Europe, with Germany's anti-EU party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), and France's National Front both calling for new Swiss-inspired immigration laws.

Norway is the first country where a government party has backed the Swiss decision, however.

Progress's position clashed with that of Norway's Conservative Party, which leads the ruling two-party coalition.

Europe Minister Vidar Helgesen stressed that her party supported open labour markets.

"We in Norway want to emphasize that the principle of free movement of people is essential for growth and prosperity in an open economy," she said after the Swiss result.

Switzerland and Norway are both members of the European Economic Area (EEA), rather than the European Union, so any new immigration law Switzerland successfully negotiates within the EEA treaty could in theory be adopted by Norway.

"Progress has said many times that Norway should study the EEA Agreement and use whatever room for manoeuvre there is to limit immigration," Keshvari said.

He accused Lithuanians and Poles of being drawn to Norway by the country's free health care and generous social security benefits.

He said the party had yet to decide on what kinds of limits to immigration it would impose.

"We have not taken a position on quotas, either in the Progress programme or in government policy," he said. "But it [immigration policy] will tighten up as soon as negotiations with the Liberals and Christian Democrats are finished."

http://www.thelocal.no/20140211/norw...yle-referendum

[Prisoner Of Ice]

One can only hope and pray...remember, the existence of your country is at stake.

[Moonbird]

One can only hope and pray...remember, the existence of your country is at stake.

If people only would wake up before it's too late.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

In 2011-12, 2,600 Swiss students took advantage of Erasmus, while Switzerland played host to some 2,900 foreign students through the EU-funded exchange program. Erasmus has a 14.7-billion-euro budget through to the year 2020. The Swiss government had hoped to create 8,000 new jobs through the EU grant program, yet an increasing number of Swiss citizens believe the trade-off in terms of higher immigration rates is not worth it.

“Switzerland is on a slippery slope of isolating its students and academics from the outside world,”Elizabeth Gehrke, vice-chairwoman of the European Students’ Union (ESU), said in a statement issued shortly after the referendum. “This could have devastating effects that would be difficult to reverse.”

It's amazing to me, too, that EU is actually imposing sanctions on a country for their immigration policies. EU not only has no business interfering in internal policies of a country, but this is like something out of a science fiction movie.