“What a plebiscite, nearly 85% of our fellow citizens voted in favor of a constitutional law against symbols of hatred! What a victory! », expressed the secretary general of the Intercommunity Coordination against anti-Semitism and defamation (Cicad), Johanne Gurfinkiel.
On Sunday, around 85% of Genevans, according to official results, approved the ban on “exhibiting” or “wearing” symbols of hatred, particularly Nazi symbols, in public spaces. Only the canton of Geneva, in Switzerland, voted on this bill.
A ban already in progress at the federal level
Such a ban is already being implemented at the federal level, via a motion voted in April by Swiss deputies. This mandates the government to create, in a special law, a legal basis governing the prohibition of the public use and dissemination of Nazi symbols or variations of these symbols. This ban at the federal level, which will a priori have to be the subject of a vote in parliament, will therefore take time.
Geneva thus becomes the first canton to include in its Constitution the ban on symbols of hatred, noted the Swiss press agency Keystone-ATS. This modification was supported by all parties, except the Democratic Union of the Center (UDC, radical right), the most important formation within the federal lower house.
The bill had, however, been tabled by a representative of the SVP whose grandfather had been deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp. But the UDC finally called for a “no” vote on Sunday, deeming it impossible to establish a list of prohibited symbols.