Swiss tighten laws on foreigners

Fifty-three percent of those who cast their ballots in a referendum on Sunday voted in favour of automatic expulsion for foreigners who commit crimes. The liberal conservative daily Die Presse writes that the referendum, an initiative of the right-wing populist Swiss People's Party (SVP), reveals a schizophrenic attitude on the part of the Swiss: "This populist motive is also what - despite all the plausible arguments - pervades the expulsion initiative and thus exposes a certain climate in Switzerland, for example the stubborn 'We're better than all the rest' attitude. The growing anti-foreigner sentiment - which is aimed not only at Africans and Eastern Europeans but also at Germans and Austrians - reveals a certain schizophrenia: on the one hand foreign murderers, robbers and dealers must be expelled from Switzerland, but on the other hand despots, dictators, Mafiosi and racketeers whose money often comes from dubious sources are bid a warm welcome."

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