- The French-speaking Swiss TV station RTS has discovered a Twitter account with ideas of violence and derogatory comments against minorities.
- The account is said to belong to a member of the Junge SVP in the canton of Neuchâtel.
- The politician claims that he was a victim of identity theft.
For a few weeks now, the Junge SVP has been confronted with accusations of being close to right-wing extremist groups. Various cantonal sections of the Young Party have distanced themselves from any form of extremism and have also demanded this from the national party leadership. The Young SVP in the canton of Neuchâtel also spoke out publicly against extremism of any kind.
Entries published under a pseudonym
Well has RTS from a member of the Young SVP Canton of Neuchâtel reported the problematic entries on the platform X (formerly Twitter). Under a pseudonym, the politician is said to have shared, among other things, ideas of violence and made derogatory comments towards minorities.
On April 1st, for example, he shared a video in which two people beat up a suspected migrant. He wrote: “I would like to make that happen every day.” On June 8, 2023, he wrote: “Find me a border crosser I can beat.” In another entry he made homophobic comments about the crowd of homosexuals in Lausanne after a video game and pop culture fair.
“Disgusting, but not extremism”
State security expert Xavier Dufour conducts research at the University of Bern. At first glance, he does not consider the content of the tweets to be relevant under criminal law. Only a court can make a final decision on this question. “Morally and politically, they are highly problematic,” says the doctoral student from the Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology.
“This is disgusting, but it cannot yet be classified as violent political extremism,” says Dufour about the tweets. The willingness to use violence and support for an anti-democratic ideology are not clearly stated. Dufour was himself president of the Young SVP Geneva almost 12 years ago and is still committed to the party. He recommends that the Young SVP in the canton of Neuchâtel process the case internally and ultimately inform the public about the decision.
Young SVP member defends himself against allegations
According to RTS, the Young SVP politician has two accounts on X. On one he presents himself publicly, on the other account with the problematic entries he is anonymous. However, there are photos of him on the latter account and he refers to his public account there.
RTS confronted the man. At first he appeared ignorant. Shortly afterwards, the account in question was made private and later disappeared completely. The politician claimed to the broadcaster that he was a victim of identity theft. His account was taken over and misused by others.
The politician is running in the local elections in the canton of Neuchâtel at the end of April, as RTS writes. He is not running for the Young SVP, but for the mother party. The parties did not want to comment to the TV station about the statements on Platform X.