Enlarge image
Geneva during the pandemic
Photo: Salvatore Di Nolfi / dpa
Openly displayed swastikas or SS runes are not legally prohibited in Switzerland.
Politicians in the Swiss canton of Geneva now want to change that.
A cross-party group of local lawmakers wants to change the canton's constitution to ban "the display or wearing of Nazi symbols" in public.
They hope that the Geneva Cantonal Council will approve the change today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In Switzerland it is legal to display Nazi symbols.
Hitler salute, swastika and the like are only forbidden if they are used for propaganda purposes.
Geneva would now be the first of the 26 cantons with a general ban, from which museums and film production would be exempt.
The canton would thus draw level with a large part of Europe.
"It is never too late"
The change must be approved by Parliament in Bern, and then a referendum must be held in Geneva.
"It's never too late to prevent Nazi ideology from being expressed in such items," Liberal MP Alexis Barbey, who co-signed the proposal, told AFP.
Thomas Blasi, a member of parliament for the right-wing populist Swiss People's Party who initiated the proposal, described the move as "highly symbolic because politicians from various parties have been trying to ban these Nazi symbols and objects for more than 20 years."
In fact, since 2003 there have been repeated political initiatives in Switzerland that have attempted to ban Nazi symbols.
So far, however, the majority of the Federal Council and Parliament have found that freedom of expression has priority.
Most recently, in 2021, members of parliament failed in an attempt to obtain a ban in the Swiss National Council.
"Anti-Semitic incidents have increased, and they reached a new dimension during the pandemic," the statement said.
MEPs had complained about the showing of Nazi signs during protests against corona measures.
mrc/AFP