Swiss voters reject anti-immigration initiative
Legal World
Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected an anti-immigrant initiative that would have made it harder for foreigners to gain citizenship, according to referendum results released Sunday.
All but one of 26 Swiss cantons (states) rejected the initiative by the nationalistic Swiss People's Party, while in the overall population 63.8 percent voted against it, according to official results.
The initiative was aimed at overturning a Supreme Court ruling that barred the widely denounced practice in some Swiss communities of subjecting citizenship applications to a popular vote.
"The people clearly said: 'We don't want xenophobia and we want direct democracy to respect basic rights,'" Swiss President Pascal Couchepin said on Swiss television SF.
People's Party lawmaker Hans Fehr said he still believed the requirements for Swiss citizenship should be more stringent.
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