Ogi slams right-wing demonstrators
The Swiss president, Adolf Ogi, has strongly condemned an attempt by right-wing extremists to disrupt the national day speech on Tuesday by the finance minister, Kaspar Villiger.
In a strongly worded statement, published on the front page of Thursday’s mass circulation Blick newspaper, Ogi said it was disgraceful that right-wing radicals should have disturbed the speech on the Rütli meadow – the place where Switzerland’s forefathers founded the Swiss Confederation in 1291.
Ogi recalled that Switzerland’s wartime military leader, General Henri Guisan, made a rallying call to the Swiss people to confront Nazism and Fascism from the same location.
“It is time that all democrats stood up to such forces, which currently come mainly from Germany and which abuse the Internet to coordinate internationally and stir up hate,” he said.
More than 100 right-wing extremists booed Villiger during his speech on Tuesday, and succeeded in interrupting him. Villiger himself criticised the interruption, but played down the importance of the incident.
swissinfo with agencies
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