Anything but English spoken here.

A MODEST CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS has broken out in Switzerland, says the Neue Zurcher Zeitung (June 22), as a controversial Social Democrat education bill has passed the lower house of the federal parliament. The bill, which treads on the customary right of Swiss cantons to set education policy, would ban the teaching of English as a second language in Swiss schools. Any such second language, argued SD leaders, should be one of Switzerland's official ones (Italian, French, German and Romansh). The Christian Democrats oppose the bill's spending provisions and complain that some cantons have already introduced English as a second language for primary education. The legislation now goes to the senatorial Council of States, where the right's stronger presence may help quash it.