It seems like there are big problems with public swimming pools in Western Europe, some of which we have recently reported on. In the Swiss municipality of Porrentuy in the Jura region bordering on France, the town has decided to ban foreigners from the pool. This is the direct result of incidents of bad behavior and aggression on the part of certain visitors from France.
The ban has caused consternation in France even with the conservative Rassemblement National party led by Marine Le Pen, which wants to stop Islamic immigration into France.
In defending the ban, the conservative Swiss People's Party (UDC) is pointing out that the "French" visitors who have caused the problems in Porrentuy are North Africans, Middle Easterners, and sub-Saharan Africans, who reside in high-crime areas in the neighboring French territory.
The below article from Le Matin (Switzerland) is translated from French by Fousesquawk.
Swimming pool controversy
Porrentuy: The RN (National Rally party in France) complains....but the UDC (Swiss People's Party) applauds
The closure of the pool to foreigners is provoking a comical situation between the 2 parties of the extreme right, the Rassemblement National and the UDC.
Caption: The Porrentuy swimming pool
The ban on the Porrentuy swimming pool to foreigners who do not reside or work in Switzerland continues to cause waves. On Sunday, the German-speaking press reported a position from the Federal Commission Against Racism, presided over by Ursula Schneider Schüttel, who believes that this measure is "problematic and irritating," according to Le Temps.
According to her, it is possible that this decision, "contravenes Article 8 of the federal constitution, which established a principle of non-discrimination (...) The community must verify if the general ban is actually proportionate, and if there are other measures that are less restrictive, such as banning individuals from swimming/bathing who repeatedly do not respect the rules.
In France, the political world is also in turmoil, and talking about discrimination in Switzerland. The regional councilor of the Grand Est region, Christian Zimmermann, a member of the Rassemblement National party, has denounced a "discriminatory and disproportionate" measure in a letter to the Porrentuy authorities, which has been reported by BFMTV (French news outlet).
X insert:
The mayor of Porrentuy is right to prohibit access to the pool to those who behave incorrectly, but it is not right that all French citizens are being penalized.
Letter from Christian Zimmermann, Regional Councilor, addressed to the mayor of Porrentuy concerning the restriction of access to the municipal swimming pool, limited only to persons of Swiss nationality.
Waldighoffen, July 2, 2025
Mr Mayor,
I have been informed by several French citizens that access to the open-air pool of your city was limited to people of Swiss nationality.
As an elected (cross-border) official, I ask that you withdraw this discriminatory and disproportionate measure vis-à-vis the people of neighboring France.
Awaiting a positive response to my request.
Please accept, Mr Mayor, my respectful greetings.
French citizens?
But in Switzerland, the UDC is applauding and denouncing a certain poor quality of the French population. The national councilor, Thomas Stettler (UDC/JU), stated on Monday: "For years, the Jura region on the border with France has been suffering incivility and outright aggressions committed by some visitors from the neighboring country (France)." According to him, "We must have the courage to say it: Many of them are from non-European immigration and living in urban zones where violence, disregard for authority, and gang crime have become a way of life.
Harmless swimmers/bathers?
Thomas Stettler talks about groups, "who come to the pool in organized gangs, who refuse to respect the rules, who insult, provoke, and attack Jura families. The ideology of denial wants us to believe that these are harmless and misunderstood bathers/swimmers. The truth is that, behind a French passport, you sometimes find North Africans, Middle Easterners, or sub-Saharaners, some of whom have never made the effort to integrate, even in France.
For the elected official of Jura, Porrentuy's decision, "should serve to give us a collective lesson. When a country no longer protects its borders and allows the importation of problems of integration from other countries, our families and our children are the ones who pay the price."
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