Another complicated vote in the Swiss Confederation on a very emotional issue. On Sunday, March 7, masked Swiss citizens were forced to vote in all public places, with or without a ban, because of Kovid-19. “Any device aimed at covering his face.”

The Egerkingen Committee, an association close to the Democratic Union of Center (UDC, Populist Right), therefore turns to a paragraph instead of naming the niqab or other clothing used by Muslim women to cover everything. Or a part of their face. Project promoters point out that their text also applies “To the Goons”.

This is easy for the population. The media has been calling for weeks and the “anti-burqa initiative” will be decided. Twelve years after the symbolic ban on unbuilt minarets, Switzerland is once again voting on a very sensitive political issue.

“It simply came to our notice then. Considered by Islamologist Stefan Lathion. There are only a handful of women in the country wearing full veils. Too often, they are proselytizers who do it out of intellectual provocation or out of prohibition. This is one of the reasons used to add fuel to the fire for those disturbed by the Muslim presence. If the initiative is passed, a new article will need to be included in the constitution when legislation is already in place to curb abuse at the local level. “

“The matter of civilization”

No federal law has yet been enacted in this regard. Only the cantonments of St. Gallen (east) or Ticino (south) are prohibited from covering the face, and rare crimes are handled by the police with courtesy and in the form of warnings rather than punishment. Fines are rare.

Of the 8.5 million inhabitants, 4.4% are Muslims in Switzerland. In nine out of ten cases, they are from the Balkans (Bosnia, Kosovo) or Turkey, with little training and well integrated. Their communities, which are not politically represented, are also divided, which increases their relative anonymity within the community. Why force the decision to be made?

This is an existential question for SVP. Far from the election records in the early 2010s (approximately 30% of the vote), the party focused on its concerns, immigration and urophobia. As Switzerland remained the leading party with 23 percent of the vote, as the political debate resumed, other issues of concern to public opinion arose, first the weather, then the epidemic.

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