Switzerland has refused to impose in its Constitution in a referendum according to the first projections published by Swiss media about the consultation held this Sunday. The scrutiny is still underway, but it is heading, according to these analyses, towards a 54% or 55% rejection of the unusual proposal of the populist right, which would have made Switzerland the first country to establish a population ceiling through constitutional means.
The initiative of the Swiss PP (SVP/UDC in its German and French acronym), the largest party in the country (with 30% in Parliament) and a markedly anti-immigration and asylum program, has divided a society that has experienced accelerated growth in the last two decades, going from 7.5 million people to 9.1 million, largely due to the entry of community citizens thanks to the free movement of people agreement agreed between Switzerland and the EU.
The country has access to the single market, although it is not part of the European Union. With an economy that demands workers, especially qualified ones, more than one million people from the EU have entered Switzerland since 2002. The foreign population makes up 27.6% of the total; and of them, 67% are community members.
The leadership of the SVP/UDC has met in a hotel in Aarberg, in the canton of Bern, to follow the results. With long faces they have received the first projections of a referendum that was predicted to be much tighter. The national deputy Thomas Matter, the main promoter of the proposal, has declared himself “disappointed”, while highlighting that “you cannot ignore” that 45% of the population who, according to this data, have supported it.
On the opposite side, the rest of the parties, unions and employers’ associations have breathed a sigh of relief when the projections of the no vote materialized. The co-president of the Swiss Socialists (SP), Cédric Wermuth, has declared to the newspaper Blick in Bern that “the population does not want this type of division.”
The populist right launched the proposal to stop immigration with arguments related to such as the shortage of affordable housing, the burden of trains full of people, traffic jams and the advance of concrete on green surfaces, a way to give an ecological touch to what they baptized as a “sustainability initiative.” He has thus convinced a part of the population.
But the text put to the referendum also clearly pointed to the free movement of people with the EU, demanding that this agreement be annulled if the total population exceeded 10 million inhabitants for two years in a row. The Swiss populist right stands out for its rejection of ties with the community club, despite the fact that Brussels is the small country’s main trading partner and the destination of 50% of its exports.
The campaign against the initiative carried out by the rest of the parties, the employers’ associations and the unions has not tired of highlighting that establishing a population limit would not solve the problems denounced by the nationalist right – the Government, a collegiate body in which the main parties are represented (also the SVP), also recommended rejecting the initiative. On the contrary, they argued: it would mean pillorying the relationship with Brussels at a time of turbulence and attacks by Donald Trump on Europe and specifically on Switzerland, which is still negotiating the fine print of an agreement that lowers tariffs that started at 39% to 15%, a blow that left last August in shock to the country.
In the end, a majority did not want to accept a proposal of diffuse application and put at risk the long bilateral path taken with the EU.
The populist right has added supporters outside its ranks due to the discomfort of part of the population with the management of asylum (protection petitioners account for 12% of arrivals), the cost of housing or the saturation of infrastructure. “It is a party that knows how to detect people’s problems, and this is, in fact, a problem. The population has increased considerably and absorbing that growth is a challenge that is increasingly noticeable,” argued Daniel Kübler, a political scientist and researcher at the University of Zurich, a few days before the vote.
On the other hand, the birth rate has fallen to its lowest level in history (1.29). And, in that sense, the incorporation of labor into the labor market is, of course, extremely important. And, yes, it is essential in certain areas,” Kübler added.
The foreign population makes up 35% of the workforce. It works in all sectors and these days its presence has been especially highlighted in the health sector, from doctors to caregivers, where a cut in immigration in an aging population would cause a significant hole. Foreign workers are “vital” for companies and for the status of a leading economy in innovation, the Economiesuisse employers’ association has also insisted.
