Black day for black sheeps

This blog ain't political at all, I mostly spend some writing little stories about everyday life, something spotted in the news, or talking about sports recently (by the way: well done, BOKKE!). For a change this post is a political one.

Shame, shame, shame, ... SHAME ON YOU! You probaly know that song in the 70's by the group Shirley and Co (this I've just learnt from Wikipedia). I like it, yet I must say the parody by Henri Salvador with the approximate homonym, "J'aime tes g'nous" (literally "I love your knees") is simply delicious. This long introduction to inform those who are not yet aware of it that the badly-named Union Democratique du Centre (UDC) has won yesterday's election in Switzerland. UDC now becomes the most important party represented in the parliament, le Conseil National.

I know very little about the political organisation of the Swiss Confederation, so let me go straight to the point and explain why yesterday's election is a disaster. In two words. UDC is an extreme right party. Xenophobic, racist, homophobic. As a scientist, I know well that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Fact I: UDC is a xenophobic and racist party

You know the story, foreigners are responsible for everything which goes bad in the country (what? by the way), they take our jobs, rape our wives and so on and so forth. Note that "foreigners" mean here the horribly poor Africans or Eastern-europeans, but also everything related to the European Union, sometimes pejoratively called "Brussels" (sic). My example is a poster which has (fortunately, but apparently not enough) triggered lots of discussions in Swizerland over the last few weeks. Here it is:



No need to comment further on this, I guess.

Fact II: UDC is a homophobic party

Switzerland has a long tradition of popular survey. A few months ago, a pact celebrating the civil union of gay couples (e.g. roughly similar to the french PACS) has been submitted and accepted, which is very good. During this campaign, UDC made clear how they do see homosexuals. Ready? ... I mean, are you sure, you won't regret it, you are really ready? drum rolls .... (it's so dramatic that I prefer to laugh a bit). According to Christoph Blocher's party, homosexuals are of course "infertile and well-to-do", that is 2 good reasons why they should not be allowed to enjoy such a contract (or, let's face it, to live). Obviously, the illustrators from the UDC made a good job to convert this into the nice poster below:



Again, I don't need to add anything to this. Remember, UDC is now the most important party in the Conseil National. They even made a big move in Romandie (the french-speaking part), which remained reluctant for a long time though.

Shame, shame, shame, ...