Switzerland Refuses to Take Sides in Ever More Divided World [View all]

https://news.yahoo.com/switzerland-refuses-sides-ever-more-071633559.html

Switzerland’s biggest political party wants to double down on neutrality, just as conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East make a non-aligned stance more difficult to sustain.

The right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which is set to win the largest share of the vote in elections later this month, is seeking to collect 100,000 signatures by May to trigger a vote on whether to enshrine “everlasting” neutrality into the constitution. That would allow it to roll back sanctions against Russia that won praise from US President Joe Biden.

The Kremlin, on the other hand, says Switzerland is no longer a neutral state — a criticism that touches a nerve with the nation of 8.9 million people.

More than 90% of the population still supports neutrality. For the Swiss, an impartial stance is a “national myth of almost religious consecration,” according to Edgar Bonjour, who wrote several volumes on the history of neutrality. While Finland recently joined the NATO military alliance and Sweden seeks to do the same, that prospect is unthinkable in Switzerland.