Assessment for Jurassians in Switzerland

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Risk Assessment | Analytic Summary | References

Risk Assessment

There is little likelihood that Jurassians will support future rebellious activity. There have been no reports of protests for some time, and the issues of concern to Jurassian political organizations do not appear to be of much salience for the majority of the group. Both the German and French-speaking populations of the Jura appear to be content to work within the political system to pursue their goals. There also is little current concern in the rest of Switzerland about the Jura region. It should be noted however that while violence by militants in the past was limited and episodic, it may recur at any time. Also, information on the activities of the separatists is difficult to come by in the English-language press and it is possible that some relevant political activities are not being reported.

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Analytic Summary

Jura is a canton located in the northwest of Switzerland and is overwhelmingly French-Roman Catholic (GROUPCON = 3). While Roman Catholicism is the dominant religion of both German-speakers and Jurassians in Switzerland as a whole (BELIEF = 0), the Bern canton is home to a large German-Protestant population, which resulted in tensions between the French-Catholics and German-Protestants. Consequently, the Jura canton was carved out of the larger Bern canton in 1979 in an attempt to accommodate these linguistic and religious differences (LANG = 2 ). Despite the creation of the Jura canton, tension has persisted between the two religious and linguistic groups due to the remaining German-speaking people left in the canton, most of whom are found in the south. Additionally, not all of the French-speaking and Catholic regions were included in the new canton, causing tension between the new canton and canton Bern. While there are tensions within the canton, there are no demographic disadvantages, and the Jurassians do not suffer from either economic or political discrimination (POLDIS06 = 0; ECODIS06 = 0). Furthermore, there have been no reported instances of government repression (REPGENCIV = 0; REPNVIOL = 0; REPVIOL = 0).

Within the Jura there are two key issues. The first is to gain greater power for the region to handle its own affairs, and the second is the belief that the entire Jura region (the area now the Jura Canton, and the remaining French-Catholic areas still part of Bern) should be unified. The interests of the Jurassians are represented by the Beiler party and by the Mouvement Autonomiste Jurassien. In 1994, the Rassemblement jurassien, which was the original separatist party in the region, and Unité jurassienne merged to form the Mouvement Autonomiste Jurassien, which continues to advocate for Jurassian independence (POLGR06 = 4).

While there is very little activity now (PROT02-06 = 0; REB00-06 = 0) this was not always the case. Both before and after the establishment of the canton there were instances of both protest (PROT60X-75X = 3) and a few bombings (REBEL85X = 2). Most recently, small protests broke out in 2001 (PROT01 = 3) after Canton Bern rejected a proposal to cede some areas to Canton Jura. Communal conflict between the French and German communities reached its peak in the 1970s but appears to have ceased in the 1990s. The most recent example of tension between the German-speakers and the French-speakers in the Jura canton arose in 2005 with the theft of a boulder symbolizing Swiss unity. The boulder had previously been stolen by a Jurassian organization in 1984 and while no claims of responsibility were issued, a brick with the Jurassian emblem was left in its place (INTERCON04-06 = 0).

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References

BBC News. 8/21/2005. "Historical Swiss boulder stolen." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4170456.stm, accessed 5/21/2008.

Lexis-Nexis. Various news reports. 1990-2006

McRae, Kenneth Douglas. 1998. Conflict and Compromise in Multilingual Societies: Switzerland. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

Mouvement Autonomiste Jurassien. "Le Mouvement autonomiste jurassien : Brève présentation" Official Website. http://www.maj.ch/presentation.htm, accessed 8/10/2009.

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