Switzerland's immigration 'victory' over the EU is a fairytale sold by the far right

[pampango]

Who knew? The Swiss far-right has its own billionaire Koch brother (not related by blood, just by money and ultra-conservative politics)

The winners of the Swiss referendum on EU immigration now tell a story that has become ingrained in Swiss lore: that poor, powerless peasants have cast off their evil foreign lords and masters. Not surprising, then, that after engineering the victory, the billionaire member of parliament Christoph Blocher, of the populist rightwing Swiss Peoples Party (SVP), stated: "Now we take power in our own hands again, the government must represent the will of the Swiss people in Brussels – the sooner the better."

The Swiss business community, our hospitals, schools and colleges, tourism and the building industry which rely on an EU workforce are appalled. Students who benefit from EU exchange programmes and the energy sector which wants to sell its storage capacity to the EU all now fear that their future is called into question.

Of course, Blocher and his followers still believe that the EU will give us a helping hand whenever we need it. But what EU governments want from Switzerland is tax on the undeclared money of their citizens deposited in Swiss banks. Blocher's story of the poor peasant who opposes the foreign king is, in the face of Swiss wealth, ridiculous. The Italians whose workers are no longer welcome in Switzerland now say they want the tax being hidden by Italians in Swiss bank accounts – and if necessary they will name and shame tax dodgers like Germany does.

So their perfectly rational concerns were exploited by the fear campaign waged by the rich Pied Pipers of the right. There are many more such Pied Pipers going around Europe with easy, popular solutions, including the scapegoating of immigrants, in an attempt to win the votes of those with justifiable fears. Switzerland has an unemployment rate of 3.5%; there is a lot to lose.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/11/europe-far-right-switzerland-immigration-victory-eu

These "far-right populist" movements always seem to have a billionaire or two providing the finding for their "populism".

Something tells me that Mr. Blocher's "populist" party will not be next turning its attention to changing banking secrecy laws, raising taxes on the rich or any other liberal policy. Being anti-immigrant is "red meat" for the European right. I suspect their "populism" will stop there.

[freshwest]

1. It's worked well here, too and the populism that makes the news is a false hope. n/t