In September 2007, the British daily The Independent described Switzerland as «Europe’s new heart of darkness», depicting it as a fore-runner within a European-wide trend towards problematising the «other» – mostly Muslims – and towards radicalising the (proposed) measures of how to deal with the «other». One of the main factors contributing to this image were the election campaigns of the populist rightwing Swiss People’s Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP), Switzerland’s most successful and (since the 2003 elections) largest party.2 In these campaigns, the SVP evoked an image of Switzerland as increasingly threatened by a growing Muslim minority at home. The fears this triggered seem to appeal to a large number of voters, as evidenced by the 29% of the electorate who voted for SVP during the last elections in October 2007.
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