Some 3,200 Lausanne residents signed a petition asking municipal authorities to limit the number of fast-food restaurants allowed to operate in the city.
Members of the left-wing Workers’ Party (POP) launched the petition in response to the recent opening of a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant in Lausanne’s Flon district and a Five Guys hamburger diner in the city center.
“This is not an anti-American campaign. It focuses on the devastating health, social, and environmental consequences of fast food”, the petition’s organizers said.
GastroLausanne, an association representing local restaurants, said that POP’s request to restrict fast-food eateries is hard to swallow because it “goes against the right of each person to choose what they eat”.
The association added that “a chain like KFC can occupy a place that would probably have remained empty for a long time and offers many students a job that allows them to finance their studies”.
Several US fast-food chains are present in Lausanne – as well as across Switzerland — including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Subway.
READ MORE
