Switzerland returns this Sunday, September 27, to the polls to vote in a referendum that puts on the table the end of the free movement of persons agreement in force with the European Union and the possibility of setting limits on the immigration of European citizens to Swiss territory. In other words, Swiss voters will decide, through popular consultation, whether EU citizens should continue to be able to live and work freely in the country.
At stake is a conservative popular initiative that has the support of the Swiss People’s Party (UDC, its acronym in French), a right-wing force that is currently the most represented in the local parliament.
The UDC retrieves several of the arguments used during the campaign in favor of the British exit from the EU (Brexit). He argues for the need to regain control of the border and immigration and argues that immigrants are threatening the Swiss jobs and overcrowding and deteriorating the quality of public services such as public transport or education.
Switzerland has 8.6 million inhabitants, about a quarter of whom are immigrants (around 2.1 million). Maintaining the migratory flows of the last years, the country’s population is expected to amount to 10 million people. In 2019, EU citizens, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein represented 68% of foreign residents in Switzerland, with the largest communities coming from Portugal, Italy and Germany.
If this political initiative is successful, the approximately 460,000 Swiss citizens residing in the EU will also be affected by the consequences. Switzerland is one of the third countries that forms part of the free movement area called the Schengen Area, allowing European citizens to travel freely to Swiss territory and settle there to work, as well as the reverse.
The Swiss also participate in the European single market, which safeguards the free movement of people, goods, capital and services. The Government has already warned that if the establishment of limits on immigration from the EU is avenged, the so-called “guillotine clause” comes into action, putting an end to several bilateral agreements in force ranging from free trade to agriculture, including research and development. tourism, among others.
The Swiss People’s Party wanted this issue to be endorsed in May, however the pandemic crisis led to the vote being postponed until Sunday.
What is the reason for this referendum?
It is not the first initiative of this kind promoted by the Swiss People’s Party to create barriers to immigration.
In 2014, the Swiss voted in favor, with 50.3% of the votes, also in a referendum, by imposing annual quotas on the granting of residence permits for EU citizens.
However, Euronews cites experts who maintain that these assumptions were not reflected in the immigration legislation subsequently passed as early as 2016. The law did not define any quotas, essentially limiting itself to creating measures to encourage Swiss companies to contract.
Cited by Euronews, Pascal Sciarini, from the University of Geneva, explains that the new legislation fell short of what was voted on in a referendum precisely because, otherwise, most of the more than 120 bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the Union would be in effect. of the aforementioned “guillotine clause”.
Following the popular consultation in 2014, the EU showed displeasure with Bern and, since then, the defense of the inviolability of the four fundamental freedoms and the guarantee that any kind of rejection of the free movement of persons will lead to Switzerland having to abandon the single market. Opponents of the initiative argue that it would remove the most qualified workers from the country and leave Switzerland isolated in the center of Europe.
In the Brexit negotiations, Brussels maintained this position in the face of London’s intention to control the movement of people.
Despite the result seen six years ago, the polls now indicate that the intention of the Swiss conservative right is unlikely to succeed. A study by gfs, bern shows that 63% of respondents oppose the proposal of the Swiss People’s Party, which receives the support of only 35% of respondents. However, in 2014, the victory of quota enforcement also came unexpectedly.
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