Political design - Referendum in Switzerland, February 8, 2009

February 8, in Switzerland it will take place a referendum to decide if the citizens from Romania and Bulgaria, the last entries in EU, will enjoy the same right of free movement in and out of this country as the other older members.

An advertising campaign is on the run from the beginning of the year.

The extreme-right party's billboard - Swiss People's Party (SVP) - don't need too much words. The iconography reminding the representation from the time of the Third Reich (third image) is speaking by himself and is a radical and more aggressive representation in comparison with the billboards displayed for the 2007 campaign for the general elections (second picture). The Free Democratic Party - FDP - is supporting the inclusion of the two countries in the Schengen agreements (first picture).

Spain's Basque region to hold elections March 1

The Associated Press

Friday, January 2, 2009

MADRID, Spain: Spain's troubled Basque territory is to hold regional parliament elections March 1, the head of the local government said Friday.

The move comes after Basque President Juan Jose Ibarretxe's Nationalist Party failed to secure a referendum last fall seen as a step toward self-determination.

Spain's Constitutional Court, the country's highest tribunal, ruled unanimously in September that such a referendum could not take place. The decision undermined confidence in Ibarretxe's government, which has ruled the Basque region for 28 years, largely in coalition with other parties.

Ibarretxe, who firmly opposes the armed separatist group ETA but favors talks with them, had argued that the referendum would give people a say in how to end the conflict, which has killed some 825 people since 1968. He also argued the referendum was not unconstitutional because it was not binding.

But the government in Madrid had described the vote as a veiled push for outright independence for a region that already enjoys a great degree of autonomy, with power over its finances, its own police force and control over education, health care and cultural issues.

The court said only Spain's central government can convene referendums. It also said that the possibility of changing the Basque region's relationship with the rest of Spain must be decided by all Spaniards, not just Basques.

The Basque region is one of Spain's 17 semiautonomous areas.