Extreme Left banned from march Extreme Right allowed

international | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Wednesday February 01, 2006 17:28 by grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

the 1st of April has been marked in Switzerland since 1891 as a national holiday and since 1994 as an official holiday to celebrate Swiss unity and the modern Swiss state.

Every year a celebration is organised on the hill of Grütli, where legend has it, a defensive pact was made in 1291 amongst the representatives of 'Uri, Schwytz and Unterwald, three of the Swiss cantons who later led the formation of the modern state in 1848.

for at least a dozen years, extreme right groups have attended the celebrations, and their presence prompted a "back-lash" from extreme left groups in 2005.

The Swiss authorities in the canton of Schwytz have now banned "extreme left" groups from attending the celebrations this year. However, they have not made a similar ban on "extreme right" groups.
There are many possible reasons for this. Extreme right "ultra-nationalist" groupings and political parties abound in the part of Switzerland, and they have elected representatives in the last years.
The last to be elected in 2005 was a 19 year old self-confessed "neo-nazi".

The "extreme left" groups banned, include Swiss anti-fascist action groups and others.

This story broke yesterday in Switzerland.
So far it is only being picked up in french and german media.
I'll update as soon as I get more specific info.

here are 2 links (french language)
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=10...34000
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=10...74000