Switzerland's biggest political party demanded a withdrawal from the Council of Europe after the continent's top rights court on Tuesday ruled the country was not doing enough to tackle climate change. The hard-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) slammed the verdict, calling the decision by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg 'scandalous'.
'Switzerland must withdraw from the Council of Europe,' the SVP said in a statement, adding that the court's job was to 'dispense justice and not make policy'. The ECHR ruled that countries including Switzerland - and Britain - must do more to protect their citizens from the consequences of climate change in a landmark ruling that sided with a group of 2,000 Swiss women against their government. The verdict has caused controversy in Switzerland, which became a member of the Council of Europe in 1963 but has stayed out of the European Union, with the SVP arguing the 'brazen interference in Swiss politics is unacceptable for a sovereign country' in a statement. Amid talk of a Brexit-style withdrawal from wider continental politics, the SVP said the ECHR was 'increasingly interfering in national affairs that were not an issue when it was founded... It is unacceptable that political decisions are made by courts