BERN, Switzerland ? Swiss citizens voting in national elections Sunday were poised to hand nationalists an unprecedented 30 percent voice, following voting dominated by concerns about immigration, nuclear power and the economy.
The Swiss People's Party is well ahead of other parties, at 29.3 percent in a recent opinion poll. It has been running campaign ads that stoke fears of immigrants spoiling an Alpine nation that's been an oasis of relative stability within stormy Europe.
The party's striking posters of black boots stomping on the Swiss flag with the message "Stop Mass Immigration" build on earlier graphically successful campaigns featuring white sheep kicking out a black sheep or dark hands grasping for Swiss passports.
"Because the people are the sovereign, because we have this very special (political) system, for us it's not acceptable that we have to open the frontiers and we have no possibility to say who can come, and under which conditions. We want to regulate this," said Oskar Freysinger, a hardline People's Party lawmaker.
But the center-right nationalists are competing with two small green parties and environmental-minded candidates of all stripes making gains amid growing anti-nuclear power sentiment in the wake of the March disaster at Japan's Fukushima reactor.
The parliamentary election largely determines the composition of the Cabinet, where the ministers run federal agencies and take turns as president for a year. The result of this election, which is held once every four years, could lead to a shift in Switzerland's multiparty, consensus-focused Cabinet.
The Swiss People's Party is expected to demand a second seat in the seven-member Cabinet if it gains the most votes, which could force more moderate parties to vacate one of their seats.
Bern architect Timo Odoni pushed a stroller with his twin 1-year-old sons ? half Swiss, half Sri Lankan ? and the family's dog to the polls in Bern on a foggy Sunday morning.
Nearby, a small group of tourists had the central square to themselves gazing at the Swiss parliament building and Swiss National Bank. The young father frowned as he passed one of the Swiss nationalists' posters on the quiet morning streets.
"I just can't stand how they do their posters, because it reminds me of 60 years before, in Germany, a little bit. And we have to do something about it," Odoni said.
"I certainly will vote the green and left parties," he said. "We have no problem with immigration, really. We have other problems, but not this problem."
Gains on the left and right would be nothing new amid the contradictions of Swiss politics.
It's a nation of increasing xenophobia and yet there are thousands of foreign workers and its residents have four official languages ? and often switch readily between German and French, or English, as they welcome millions of tourists each year.
Switzerland also provides a home to refugees and is committed to humanitarian work like that of the Red Cross, and allows European Union nationals to enter without a passport as part of the border-free Schengen Zone.
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