Word: katumba
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Above the sound of clinking coffee cups in a Zurich café, Andrew Katumba, 36, a Socialist candidate for parliament in Switzerland's national elections on Sunday, is outlining what he sees as the country's most urgent problem. "Switzerland is one of the strongest democracies in Europe, and yet one in five people cannot vote," says Katumba, whose father fled Uganda to Switzerland during Idi Amin's reign of terror, when Andrew was 3. "We are not integrating foreigners...
...Overhearing Katumba from the next table, Peter Gaehler raps his cane on the floor and erupts. "These foreigners come here and abuse our social system! Half of them don't speak our language," says Gaehler, 78, as several nearby people listen in and nod in agreement. "Why should we give them passports...
...That sense - battered during recent months - is what drew Katumba's father to flee Uganda to this country of mountains and wooden chalets decades ago, in search of a serene future. Come Sunday, immigrants will be wondering if that future includes them...
...Katumba, 32, is right - and not everyone in Switzerland is happy about it. The dramatic increase in the country's foreign-born population is fueling the popularity of the SVP, the furthest to the right of the major parties. Some 20% of Switzerland's population is foreign-born, one of the highest percentages in Europe, and last year more than 26,000 asylum seekers and refugees came to the country - costing the government j590 million. As it has in the past, the SVP is making immigration (legal and otherwise) a hot-button issue. But this time around the party...
...balance that has made Swiss governments so stable for the past 44 years probably won't be upset. "We'll be satisfied to get additional seats in Parliament to boost our voting power," says Panayides. Passing out election leaflets on the rain-soaked streets of Zurich, Secondos Plus candidate Katumba also appears confident. "The Swiss are smart enough not to panic," says Katumba, a product manager for an Internet company. "We can't go back to the way it used to be 50 years ago." He seems to have persuaded Petra Brunner, 22. "The fact that he is running shows...