In last Sunday’s referendum, Swiss citizens rejected the initiative of the right-wing People\u2019s Party (SVP) by 54.79%. <\/p>\n
It called for the permanent population not to exceed 10 million by 2050, with automatic restrictions on asylum, family reunification, and a possible revision of the free movement agreement with the EU.<\/p>\n
Switzerland, with a current population of approximately 9.1 million (an increase of about 25% since 2002, mainly due to immigration from the EU), faces pressures on housing, infrastructure, and the environment. The rejection of the proposal indicates that the majority prioritized economic stability and relations with the EU. Businesses and the government warned of labor shortages in technology, healthcare, and tourism, while many pointed out that a \u201cyes\u201d vote would amount to a \u201cSwiss Brexit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The vote, however, revealed deep divisions. The rural, German-speaking cantons (e.g., Schwyz, Uri, Appenzell, St. Gallen), where immigration is seen as a threat to the way of life, gave strong support to the \u201cYes\u201d vote. In contrast, urban centers and French-speaking cantons (Geneva, Vaud, Neuch\u00e2tel, Basel-Stadt, Zurich) voted overwhelmingly \u201cNo\u201d (often >60%). Ticino (Italian-speaking) was more divided. High turnout in cities bolstered the \u201cNo\u201d vote.<\/p>\n
Regarding voting by age group, pre-referendum polls (YouGov, gfs.bern) showed higher support among men (43% vs. 31% among women) and those aged 45\u201359, while younger voters (18\u201329) were more opposed (~20% \u201cYes\u201d). Older voters were split, but more conservative in rural areas. Women and young people were more concerned about the economic consequences.<\/p>\n
Although 45% of \u201cYes\u201d voters expressed concerns about overpopulation, the majority was not convinced. However, the SVP managed to mobilize its base\u2014and beyond\u2014around its proposal. However, economic arguments and the fear of isolation prevailed. The referendum highlights tensions in a country where 28\u201330% of the population is foreign-born, without, however, drastically changing policy. The issue of immigration remains open for future votes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In last Sunday’s referendum, Swiss citizens rejected the initiative put forward by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) by a margin of 54.79%.
\nIt called for not …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}