Antiracist campaign in Switzerland uses Erdogan on posters  

The Socialist Party (SP) will run a counter-campaign against the racist campaign in Switzerland with the motto, “We don’t want a Switzerland like Erdogan’s dictatorship”.

Swiss far right party UDC launched a racist and fascist initiative titled “Determine your own fate” which will be voted on in a nation-wide referendum on November 25, and the Swiss Socialist Party (SP) is running a counter-campaign titled “We don’t want a Switzerland like Erdogan’s dictatorship”. SP representatievs and political parties/organizations objecting to the initiative held a joint press conference as the “Platform Against Racist Campaigns” and kicked off the campaign they are to run against the initiative.

“WE DON’T WANT A COUNTRY LIKE ERDOGAN’S DICTATORSHIP”

The most prominent point in the press conference was the poster the Socialist Party is using against the racist initiative. The posters have photographs of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin overlayed with the words, “Switzerland resists”, drawing attention to dictatorial regimes.

Socialist Party MP Nadine Masshardt spoke in the press conference and protested the UDC’s initiative to be voted on November 25: “We can’t go down the same path as countries like Turkey, Russia and the US which are run by dictatorships.” Masshardt said the initiative is a great attack against the preservation of fundamental human rights and called for a “No” vote in the upcoming referendum on November 25.

Another SP MP said, “Throughout the world, rising nationalism and populism is overshadowing fundamental human rights. We see this in Turkey. In countries like Russia, the US and Turkey, autocrats, i.e. dictators, are on the rise. We can’t let this happen in Switzerland. If the initiative achieves its goals, Switzerland will be like Erdogan, Putin and Trump.”

The SP has called the racist initiative a serious attack against fundamental human rights and stated that the initiative will ignore international human rights law and deepen the nationalism and rights violations in the country, and thus must be fought against.

WHAT DOES THE UDC AIM FOR WITH THE RACIST INITIATIVE?

The UDC had gathered 100.000 signatures and won the right to take the “Determine Your Own Fate” racist initiative to a nationwide referendum. The initiative will be voted on on November 25 and wants to remove Switzerland from all international law conventions the country has signed. The initiative calls for Switzerland to ignore fundamental human rights laws recognized by the country. The UDC’s racist initiative says, “The Swiss Constitution guarantees human rights. We don’t need Strasbourg judges (the ECHR) for this. Even if the ECHR didn’t exist, Switzerland has its own laws.”

The racist initiative hasn’t received support from many except the UDC and some fringe groups, while political parties and human rights institutions seriously object to the initiative