An important step forward for Switzerland. Extremist symbols, particularly Nazi symbols, until now tolerated in the country's public spaces, were banned on Wednesday by parliament. As surprising as it may seem, until now they were tolerated if their aim was not to incite hatred but to express a personal opinion.
The lower house, the National Council, voted by 133 votes to 38 in favor of prohibiting the display of images of an extremist nature, inciting violence and racists. Such a measure had already been adopted in December by the Council of States, the upper house.
Switzerland, which remained neutral during World War II, came under pressure to align with a number of other European countries in banning Nazi symbols, following the example of Germany, Poland and several other Eastern European states, where this ban is total. This also concerns gestures, words, greetings or flags.
“Possible to give the Hitler salute in public spaces”
“We don’t want a swastika or a Hitler salute in our country, ever!” ", launched the environmentalist MP Raphaël Mahaim, according to whom "there has never been and there will never be good reasons to display a swastika or another symbol of Nazi ideology, originally of the darkest pages in the history of humanity.
“Today, in Switzerland, it is possible, it is even permitted, to display a flag with a swastika on your balcony. It is possible to put a flag bearing the image of the SS on the windshield of your car. It is possible to give the Hitler salute in public spaces,” he added, denouncing an “intolerable” situation.
On the other hand, the question will be much more difficult to address for other extremist symbols. “What about, for example, the
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symbol of Putin's army of aggression? What about the Ku Klux Klan symbol? What about the hammer and sickle symbol? », asks the environmentalist deputy. “So many delicate debates that we will have to have, of course, because these are extremist symbols that must also be dealt with in the law but debates which will be more difficult,” said Raphaël Mahaim.
Part of the populist right is opposed to it
The Swiss Minister of Justice, Beat Jans, for his part stressed that if the government had until now focused on prevention as the main bulwark in the fight against racism, he now considered that legal provisions were necessary and that In particular, it was necessary to be able to impose fines. The number of “anti-Semitic incidents, particularly those involving the use of Nazi symbols,” has “increased sharply in recent times,” he lamented.
On Wednesday, the votes against and abstentions all came from the Democratic Union of the Center (UDC), the right-wing populist party, the largest party in the lower house. UDC MP Barbara Steinemann, for example, judged that Switzerland had succeeded in containing extremism and that it was confined to “a few insignificant weirdos”.
According to her, Nazi symbolism has only grown since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip last October, under “the influence of immigration from non-European cultures”. Its ban will not prevent “rampant” anti-Semitism in universities and “intellectual circles”, she warned.