Swiss People's Party wins big!

Much to the embarrassment of many Swiss, the far right Swiss People's Party increased their percentage to 30% and are now the largest party. Running on a strong anti-immigration ticket, they routed other parties. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the party had a poster for the election showing three white sheep kicking a black sheep off of a Swiss flag. About one/fifth to one/sixth of Switzerland are immigrants; how do you think they feel when a party like that gets voted in? Alienation must be running rife...

Fear of foreigners is really quite big here. The irony is that Europe needs immigrants. Birth rates are dropping, kids don't go to university to study and the economies need skilled workers. The European Commission has recently proposed a blue card program to attract immigrants. I don't know all the details but it sounds like a wholehearted effort at dealing with the need for more workers.