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Word of the year reflects political debate

“Ausschaffung” – the German for “expulsion” - has been chosen as the Swiss word of the year, just a few days after the Swiss voted to expel criminal foreigners.

It was selected by a six-member jury of media and entertainment personalities from some 2,000 suggestions and announced on German-language Swiss radio on Thursday.

The jury justified its choice by saying a single political group was managing to determine public debate and to give new expressions popular currency.

Last year’s word was “Minarettverbot”, or “minaret ban”, following the successful campaign to ban the construction of minarets, which was also backed by the rightwing Swiss People’s Party.

The “un-word” of the year was “Fifa-Ethikkommission”, the ethics commission of the football’s world governing body, which has been asked to pronounce on allegations of corruption made against a number of Fifa officials.

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR