Switzerland rejects limiting its population to 10 million as demanded by the far-right

BarcelonaThe Swiss have rejected in a referendum the proposal promoted by the far-right to limit the population of the country to ten million inhabitants. The initiative, promoted by the Swiss People's Party, proposed measures to curb demographic growth, mainly through more restrictions on immigration and the right to asylum. According to preliminary results, 55% of voters opposed the proposal.

Switzerland is one of the Western European countries with the fastest demographic growth: in 2002 it had 7.3 million inhabitants and now there are more than 9.1, representing an increase of almost 25%. The main cause of this growth is immigration, as the local fertility rate stands at around 1.3 children per woman. Currently, a quarter of the population is foreign.

Had it been approved, the initiative would have obliged the Swiss government and Parliament to act if the country's permanent population had exceeded 9.5 million, a figure that the promoters consider the "alert threshold". At that point, they proposed that entry for newcomers, including asylum seekers, should be banned, the right to family reunification for foreigners suspended, and nationalizations denied to people already provisionally admitted. Furthermore, it suggested that if the population reached 10 million, Switzerland should withdraw from international agreements that "promote demographic growth".

This meant that Switzerland had to end freedom of movement with the European Union, which had put the business sector on alert, considering that the European Union is the country's main trading partner. The free movement of people agreement grants EU citizens the right to enter, reside, and carry out a professional activity in Swiss territory on equal terms with nationals.

The populist Swiss People's Party has been the only one to defend the initiative, while all other parties have united against it. Even the Socialist Party has allied with employers' organizations to convince the Swiss of the negative consequences of the proposal. The Minister of Justice, Beat Jans, has welcomed the result but has committed to analyzing what additional measures could be taken regarding housing and immigration to satisfy voters' concerns.