Centre party joins the religious freedom debate

The centrist Christian Democratic Party has become the latest political party in Switzerland to call for a discussion about religious freedom and Swiss values. At the party’s summer meeting on Saturday in Appenzell, leader Gerhard Pfister said that a debate about values had to take place. It was only right to do so in this time of terror attacks in Europe, the migration crisis and the attacks on “the western way of life”. We have been too tolerant of people who want intolerance, Pfister added. Those who seek protection in Switzerland, will still receive it, but “whoever wants protection but doesn’t respect our values, should find a country of protection that fits better with his own values”. The Christian Democrats must take a position for a “Christian-based western society and its rule of law”, continued Pfister. The conservative right Swiss People’s Party - Switzerland’s largest party - also holding its summer meeting on Saturday, is better known for its hard ...