The Socialist Party (SP) of Switzerland is running a counter-campaign to a racist initiative in the country with the motto, “We don’t want a Switzerland like Erdoğan’s dictatorship,” according to a report by the pro-Kurdish Fırat news agency (ANF) on Friday.
According to the report, the far-right UDC party launched a fascist, racist initiative titled “Determine your own fate” in the country, which will vote in a nationwide referendum on November 25. In reaction, the SP launched a counter-campaign titled “We don’t want a Switzerland like Erdoğan’s dictatorship.”
The focal points of the SP’s campaign are posters bearing photographs of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin overlaid with the words, “Switzerland resists.”
Speaking at a press conference SP deputy Nadine Masshardt 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,” said Masshardt. She also said the initiative is an attack on the preservation of fundamental human rights and called for a “No” vote in the upcoming referendum on November 25.
Another SP deputy said: “Throughout the world, rising nationalism and populism are 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 the countries of Erdoğan, Putin, and Trump.”
The SP has also 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.
