Christoph Blocher Takes Helm Of Switzerland's Move To The Right

Ulrika Lomas, Tax-news.com, Brussels

28 September 2000

It seems as if a large swathe of Europe is becoming increasing right-wing and with it comes a distinct sense of unease. As neo-Nazi activity grows in Germany, neighbouring Austria has witnessed the rise to government of Jorg Haider and his far-right Freedom Party. Now it appears that Switzerland is moving towards the right and what better to demonstrate this than the increasing popularity of Christoph Blocher, leader of the Swiss People's Party and the voice of Swiss nationalism. Switzerland has always had a less than easy relationship with foreigners. Its hotels are crammed with foreign workers, doing the jobs that one never sees the Swiss doing, and yet one cannot help feeling that the Swiss do not really want them there. Some observers see Christoph Blocher's rise to prominence as quite disturbing. He appears to endorse the existing xenophobic sentiment in Swtizerland and it is generally viewed as more than a mere flirtation with xenophobia.

Blocher's far-right populist Swiss People's Party secured perhaps its greatest success in October 1999 when it made dramatic gains in Switzerland's general election to become the second largest party in the Swiss parliament, having risen from a lowly fourth place in the 1995 elections. The results immediately gave credence to fears that voters across Europe are succumbing to the pitches of hard-right populists, especially given the results in Austria of less than a month earlier. Political analysts in Switzerland were stunned by the showing of the Swiss People's Party, which had campaigned on a nationalist, anti-immigrant platform, saying immigrants abused the country's liberal asylum laws, and which called on Switzerland not to join the European Union. However, the People Party's campaign to curb immigration, keep neutral Switzerland at arm's length from the EU and cut taxes appeared to have struck a chord with the voters.

Naturally, the general election result in Switzerland threw a spotlight on the already well-known figure of Blocher. One of the richest men in Switzerland and listed as one of the world's 300 wealthiest people in America's Forbes magazine, he owns a large hunk of the chemicals company EMS-Chemie Holding. A charismatic but hard-nosed executive, he entertains his business guests at a thousand-year-old castle on the Rhine and posts his provocative speeches on his own website (www.blocher.ch). Blocher is also a savvy player in the Swiss stock market. In recent years, he has poured EMS-Chemie's excess cash into the shares of big Swiss pharmaceuticals companies.

Blocher has caused outrage amongst Jews the world over with his parliamentary speeches, which have been laced with thinly veiled anti-Semitic appeals. In 1997, when Switzerland was confronting charges that it profited from wartime dealings with the Nazis, Blocher launched a campaign to prevent public funds from being used to support victims of the Holocaust. That same year, Blocher told a rally that Switzerland had no reason to apologize for doing business with Nazi Germany and has accused Jewish tactics during a settlement campaign with the Swiss banks as tantamount to "blackmail". Now, given the electoral success of Blocher and his party, Jewish leaders are warily watching their ascent.

Blocher's views of the Jewish situation aside, he is also proposing a clamp-down on asylum-seekers, wherever they might come from. Per person, Switzerland gets far more refugee applications than any other major European country. He is concerned that bi-lateral accords with the EU, approved by the Swiss in a referendum in May, will
at a later date allow EU citizens to circulate freely in and out of Switzerland without visas. He commented: 'It's quite clear that unemployment will go up, because a lot more people will come in than there is work for them.' However, one questions whether his opinion is purely based on economic foundations. Next month, Switzerland will hold a referendum on whether to limit to 18 per cent the share of foreigners in the total population (the current level is over 19 per cent). Although Blocher considers this particular proposal impracticable, he obviously agrees with it: 'The problem is not so much foreigners who work in Switzerland as the ones who live here illegally. They are the ones we must stop. It is not fair that there are so many of them here.'

Comparisons between Blocher and Jorg Haider are forever being drawn, yet Blocher is always out to distance himself from the Austrian. He says any alleged resemblance is "absolutely untrue". Blocher also insists he is not a racist, but the fact still remains that he does attract extreme right-wing support. As the political correspondent of the centre left newspaper Tagesanzeiger put it last year: 'I wouldn't call him a fascist. He's the guy who just has the match and isn't there when the fire breaks out.'

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