by SAMUEL JABERG
Voters in canton Ticino passed a ban on face-covering headgear on September 22 PHOTO /Keystone
The massive turnout in favour of banning burkas from public spaces in Ticino could lead to a nationwide vote on the same issue, a possibility of real concern to human rights organisations and Switzerland’s Muslim community.
On September 22, Italian-speaking Ticino became the first Swiss canton to accept such a ban, with more than 65 per cent of voters in favour. This result has boosted the hopes of those backing a future nationwide initiative.
“The text is ready. It is similar to one put forward by canton Aargau and rejected by the federal parliament in 2012,” Ulrich Schlüer of the rightwing Swiss People’s Party told Geneva’s Le Temps newspaper.
Schlüer, a former member of the House of Representatives, is best known as the driving force behind the anti-minaret initiative accepted by Swiss voters in 2009.
One of his party colleagues, Walter Wobmann, told Swiss television that the effort to collect the 100,000 signatures needed to force a vote on a burka ban would likely begin in spring 2014.
The text would be along the lines of legislation already adopted in France in 2010 and in Belgium two years ago. If all the requirements are met, a vote on a Swiss nationwide ban is unlikely to take place before 2015, the same year as the next federal elections.
The anti-burka proposal has some support on the centre-right as well.
“Burkas are not compatible with our values or integration goals,” Christophe Darbellay, president of the Christian Democrats, told the Nouvelliste newspaper. “I know the difference between a tourist and a person coming to live in Switzerland, who is expected to integrate.”
“It’s a matter of security,” added his party colleague Urs Schwaller. “The police have to be able to identify people, and to do that you have to see their face.”
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