Vegan activist says no more cowbell, and her Swiss neighbors say no citizenship for you

Maybe the third time will be the charm?

Nancy Holten, a Dutch woman who grew up in Switzerland, has applied for Swiss citizenship twice.

And twice, the local residents’ committee that gets to sign off on that application has turned her down — because she annoys them, according to The Local, a Swiss news website.

The vegan animal-rights activist made enemies in her community of Gipf-Oberfrick after campaigning against cowbells, which she argues hurts the cows.

Things have gotten personal. The president of the local branch of the Swiss People’s Party, Tanja Suter, told the media that Holten has a “big mouth.”

Her neighbors didn’t want to give her the “present” of Swiss citizenship “if she annoys us and doesn’t respect our traditions,” Suter told The Local.

In recent years, the 42-year-old “has shaken her fellow citizens with various initiatives,” reports the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper in Zurich.

“Once she wanted to abolish the church bell in the early morning, then reintroduce the resting compartments on the train. She demonstrated against animals in the circus, against horse-breeding in the Aargauer Schachen and on the Olma. It is not known which of these actions was too much.”

The first time her neighbors reviewed her citizenship application they argued for more than hour, then voted 144-48 — to applause — to deny her, the newspaper reported.

It’s not like she’s a newcomer. The native Dutchwoman has lived in Switzerland since she was 8. Her three daughters were born in Switzerland.

Since she separated from her husband she’s become a vocal advocate for animals, raising public objection to hunting and piglet racing and talking to Swiss media about the issues.

On social media people have called her a witch and a cow and told her to go back to where she came from.

She appealed after she was denied citizenship the first time. “And after a detailed examination of the facts, the government came to the conclusion that Holten had been wrongly dismissed,” Tages-Anzeiger reported.

“Neither had she criticized local custom, nor could her behavior be described as exaggerated or extreme. Basic values ​​of the Federal Constitution were also not violated.”

The municipal assembly reconsidered her application in November. And for a second time her neighbors turned her down, this time by a bigger margin — 203 to 59 votes.

Urs Treier, a spokesman for the Gipf-Oberfrick administration, told The Local that the town didn’t reject Holten’s application because of the cowbells issue — but because she campaigned so publicly against them.

“The voters of Gipf-Oberfrick know that the legal requirements for naturalization are met and they know that even people who want to be naturalized in Switzerland may have different ideological opinions,” Treier said.

“The reason why they have yet again clearly rejected the naturalization is that Nancy Holten very often expresses her personal opinion in the media, and also gathers media coverage for rebelling against traditional (Swiss) things within the village.”

Some of her neighbors wonder, Treier told The Local ,why she even wants to become Swiss.

“If someone is so much in the spotlight and rebels against things that are accepted in the local community, it can cause the community to not want such a person in their midst,” Treier added.

On Monday, Holten told The Local, “I think I was too strident and spoke my mind too often.

“Many people think that I am attacking their traditions. But that was not what it was about, it was never about that. What primarily motivated me about the cowbells was the animals’ welfare.”

After all these years of calling Switzerland home, she’s not giving up. The municipal committee said it won’t vote on her application a third time, according to Tages-Anzeiger.

The Swiss government has her application now.

“The law states that freedom of expression must not have any negative consequences,” she told The Local.

“I am still committed to what is important to me. Especially for the animals in particular. Their well-being is important to me. If I stop doing it any more, I am not being genuine and honest. So I will not stop just for the sake of the Swiss passport.”

This story was originally published January 10, 2017 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Vegan activist says no more cowbell, and her Swiss neighbors say no citizenship for you."