People cast ballots in a referendum backed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) to limit population growth to 10 million inhabitants, in Hundwil, Switzerland, on Sunday.Michaela Stache/Reuters
Nearly 55 per cent of voters in Switzerland on Sunday rejected an initiative championed by the top right-wing party to cap the rich Alpine country’s population at 10 million, early results showed.
Recent polling from the gfs.bern agency suggested that it could be a close contest.
Preliminary results shared by the federal government showed that nearly 55 per cent of voters rejected the proposal, with nationwide turnout almost 59 per cent. Results were still pending from many of Switzerland’s 26 cantons.
The probable rejection showed a majority of voters had prioritized economic stability and the country’s ties to the European Union over concerns that immigration is stretching public services, pushing up rents and fuelling crime.
Divisive referendum proposes capping Switzerland’s population at 10 million
The referendum, which was likened to Britain’s 2016 Brexit vote, had put businesses on edge due to concerns it could lead to the end of free movement of labour between the Switzerland and the EU, its main trading partner.
The proposal championed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party stipulated that the population must not exceed 10 million before 2050, and that if it did so for two years, Switzerland should scrap its freedom of movement accord with the EU.
Since Switzerland and the EU eased restrictions on citizens living and working across their borders in 2002, the Swiss population has grown by 23 per cent, to 9.1 million as of the end of last year. Economic output has also increased, up 24 per cent over the same period, government data show.
Still, the substantial backing for the measure sits alongside growing support for policies aimed at curbing immigration across Europe. Campaign posters proclaimed only 10 per cent of incomers were skilled workers and that asylum seekers were more likely to be rapists.
Opponents dubbed the plan a recipe for chaos because of the upheaval it would cause for Swiss companies, workers and Bern’s ties with the EU.
They also questioned whether it was wise to clash with Brussels after a bruising 2025, when President Donald Trump slapped the highest U.S. tariffs in Europe on Swiss goods.
In Geneva, Switzerland’s second-largest city and a hub of UN institutions and humanitarian groups, early results showed about two-thirds of voters in the region opposed the measure.
Maria Lalu, a former diplomatic mission worker from the Philippines who arrived in Switzerland in the early 1980s, said she supported the proposal. “I have nothing against immigration. I also am a stranger,” she said after casting her vote, adding that she wants immigration to be more orderly.
Schoolteacher Natascha Robert said she voted against the bid, expressing concern that approval could hurt Switzerland’s relationship with the EU. She also said Switzerland’s growing diversity is an asset.
“I think people always have something to bring us,” she said outside a polling station in the central Paquis neighbourhood, emphasizing that she was born in Switzerland to two Swiss parents. “Does that mean that we have more foreigners, I feel less Swiss? Really, not.”
Patrick Leisibach, a migration expert at think tank Avenir Suisse, said the economic arguments had played a role, with people wary of how a “yes” vote would affect their daily lives.
“They wonder ’who is going to serve me at the restaurant?’ and ’who is going to care for me when I get old?’ It’s more about personal welfare which made people reject this initiative,” Leisibach said.
Swiss voters have repeatedly tackled the immigration issue over the last half-century. Only one such referendum – “Against mass immigration” in 2014 – narrowly passed, after campaigners stoked fears about overpopulation and rising numbers of Muslims in the country.
While many countries have limits on immigration, none has ever voted to limit its population, Swiss experts say.
With reports from Associated Press