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Swiss reject plan to automatically expel foreign criminals

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A French-language poster campaigning for the 'Enforcement Initiative' in Geneva, Switzerland, earlier this month.EPA

GENEVA — Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to automatically expel foreigners who commit even low-level crimes, according to results, handing a setback to a popular nationalist party that had put forward the measure.

The initiative was rejected Sunday by 59 percent of voters, the government website showed. It was the most controversial of a number of national and local issues in the referendum, propelling voter turnout to top more than 62 percent — which the state broadcaster said was the highest since 1992.

The outcome comes as a blow to the Swiss People's Party, which had campaigned for the plan, and was a turnaround from opinion polls last year.

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The Swiss government had opposed the measure. Federal councilor Simonetta Sommaruga praised a push by advocacy groups to help rebuff the measure, telling RTS television that voters had sent the message: ''Human rights are important in our country: They should not be restricted.''

Under the proposal, Swiss law would have been changed to make expulsion part of the sentence for any foreigner, whether for severe crimes like murder or low-level crimes.

A broad coalition of political parties and legal experts had rejected the plan, saying it would effectively create a two-tier justice system that treats Switzerland's 2 million or so foreigners — about a quarter of the population — more harshly.

Public debate over the issue was unusually fierce by Swiss standards. The People's Party's campaign posters showed a white sheep atop a Swiss flag, kicking away a black sheep. Opponents of the measure released an electronic ad at train stations showing a tattered swastika next to a large ''No'' to the referendum.

In a separate development Sunday, Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, said Europe has the ability to stop the flow of migrants reaching the continent but its leaders have no plans to do so.

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Orban has been at the forefront of those rejecting the refugees and asylum-seekers flooding into Europe because of conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Hungary last year built razor-wire fences on its borders with Serbia and Croatia to stop migrants from freely entering the country — moves that altered the flow of migrants across Europe.

''It is bad enough that Brussels cannot organize Europe's defense, but worse is that even the intention is missing,'' Orban said in his annual speech about the state of the country.

Orban described the EU response to the migrant crisis as ''absurd'' and compared EU leadership to the captain of a ship about to collide who spends time ''designating the non-smoking lifeboats instead of trying to avoid the collision.''

''Europe's future is endangered primarily not by those who want to come here, but by those political, economic, and intellectual leaders who are trying to transform Europe in opposition to the European people,'' Orban said, blaming German Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming response to refugees as one of the factors responsible for the crisis.

Orban said he had asked his interior and defense ministers to prepare to build new defenses on the Romanian border.

In Rome on Sunday, Pope Francis said a concerted response was needed to solve Europe's migrant problem so that countries share equally the burden of helping those fleeing war and other ''inhumane'' situations.

Francis praised Greece and other countries offering ''generous'' help while being on the front line of the arrivals. Speaking in St. Peter's Square on Sunday, Francis said a ''concerted response can be more effective and distribute equally the weight'' of helping the migrants.

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