Swiss immigration vote shows loss of trust in business elite: minister

A loss of trust in Switzerland's business and political elite may be one of the reasons the alpine nation voted in favor of putting strict limits on immigration, Swiss Economy Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann said on Wednesday. Pointing to a "culture of excess", Schneider-Ammann said pursuit of profit sometimes at the expense of the common good had turned off ordinary people from political and business leaders. Swiss voters on Sunday narrowly backed an initiative "against mass immigration," following a successful campaign by the populist right-wing Swiss People's Party, which blamed an influx of foreigners for higher crime, rising rents and congested streets. The Swiss government and business lobby groups had urged a vote against the proposal, emphasizing that it would make it difficult for businesses to recruit qualified staff on whom the Swiss economy and the banking and pharmaceutical industries depend.