Abstract
PATRIOTIC CONSENSUS, HIDDEN FACE OF XENOPHOBIA P.F. explores the emergence and use of the notion of Ueberfremdung (excessive number of foreigners and undue foreign influence). It is found in a 1931 Act, in experts' reports and also in texts issued by the Union Syndicale Suisse (engaged since the 1937 «Paix du travail» in formal cooperation with the swiss Confederation). In those texts it appears as an instrument for national consensus and integration of working class movement. But it also overtly occupies a central position in the xenophobic nationalist speach of the 60s and 70s of which P.F. studies two typical examples : a pamphlet and an interview given by Fritz Meier the founder of the Action nationale, and texts by J. Schwarzenbach who was the initiator of various projects of xenophobic référendums.