Elezioni

“The Indians aren’t able to stop immigration – today they live on reservations.”

Sunday was election day for the Swiss parliament and it seems the country's heading right. The Lega dei Ticinesi did fairly well in our canton of Ticino and the UDC/SVP Swiss People’s Party was also successful (their sheep ad was recently deemed racist by the UN, but they maintain it’s just a figure of speech which refers to the “criminal foreigners” they want to deport). They received about 27% of the vote, enough to cause a bit of an upset in the usually balanced Parliament. Support for the Swiss People’s Party comes mostly from those who want less government control and nothing to do with the EU.

So, although Swiss Mr. enjoys spending a good amount of time suggesting ways we can disrupt the social order while we are here, as foreigners, I believe we’ll have to be on our best behavior – especially after we “announce” our presence at our local government building, as we have been instructed to do. We’ve been putting that off, not really knowing what is involved. I think we get health insurance and they put our names on a local bulletin board for all to see (for civilian watchdog groups, no doubt). The churches already know we are here – bulletins in the mailbox makes it feel just like home!