Freedom Party of Switzerland
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Freedom Party of Switzerland | |
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The Freedom Party of Switzerland (FPS) (German: Freiheits-Partei der Schweiz; French: Parti suisse de la liberté / PSL) is a minor right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Its president and leading representative is Jürg Scherrer, formerly the head of the security department in the city government of Biel/Bienne until 2008. The party is against much government involvement in the economy, especially environmental regulations, but is for strict controls on immigration and strict punishments for selling drugs. The party opposes Swiss EU membership.
History
The FPS was founded 1984 in
The party enjoyed success in the cantonal parliaments, particularly in
Despite renaming itself to "Freedom Party" in 1994, the FPS lost all national mandates in the 1999 elections and, as of 2006, retains but a very few parliamentary seats in some cantonal and municipal parliaments. Most of its members, and even entire sections have joined the Swiss People's Party which has incorporated most of the party's agenda.
Agenda
The FPS campaigns on a pronounced
The party and its exponents are also noted for their aggressive anti-communist rhetoric, at least compared to that of mainstream Swiss parties. Its leader Jürg Scherrer has been (unsuccessfully) sued several times under Swiss anti-discrimination laws on account of his disparaging statements about Africans and foreigners in general. The following excerpts from a statement of Scherrer's, posted on the party's website in 2006, may serve to illustrate the party's take on current issues:
No other people in the world are as much lied to and duped by a
government as the Swiss. ... The unhampered wave of immigration of the last ten years has caused criminality and drug problems in Switzerland to escalate drastically. ... We want to act now. Emergency law must be used to close the Swiss border to any immigration from outside the EU/EFTA states, with exceptions for the labour market only. Criminal foreigners must be extradited immediately. International agreements that forbid this must be terminated. If we don't clean up now, it will be too late tomorrow.[2]
References
- Hans Hirter: Freiheits-Partei in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, 2005-04-05.
Notes
- ^ (in German) Party platform of May 8, 1999 on the party's website
- ^ (in German) Das Mass ist übervoll by Jürg Scherrer, editor's translation from the German.
External links
- (in German) Website of the Freedom Party of Switzerland