Swiss voters will soon have their say on a hard-right, anti-immigration proposal that aims to limit the country’s population, but this week senators in the country made it clear where they stand.
Lawmakers in Switzerland’s upper chamber the Council of States have recommended that voters say no to the hard-right Swiss People’s Party’s initiative called “No to a ten million Switzerland!”.
The proposal stipulates that Switzerland’s permanent resident population must not exceed ten million people before 2050. If the permanent resident population does exceed 9.5 million people before the year 2050, the proposal says the Federal Council and the parliament would have to take measures to limit immigration, such as restricting access to permanent residency or Swiss citizenship
If these measures are not sufficient then the Swiss government would have to take more drastic measures such as ending the free movement agreement with the EU.
READ MORE: What exactly does the Swiss ‘no to 10 million’ anti-immigration proposal aim to do?
Senators accepted that population growth in Switzerland represented a challenge but said limiting the population was not the solution, measures such as ending free movement were simply too drastic and they would harm future generations, the news agency Keystone-SDA reported.
Tiana Moser, from the Green Liberal party, said the only impact the initiative would have, would be the damage it would cause to Switzerland and its population.
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The senator gave the example of the UK, where because of Brexit, the number of European immigrants has dropped, but overall the number of foreigners arriving in the country has risen.
Senators from the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) argued that new measures were needed and denied that the proposal would stop immigration altogether.
READ ALSO: Why Switzerland’s anti-immigration proposal could ‘put people’s lives at risk’
The SVP’s Esther Friedli said that since 2000 Switzerland’s population has “grown 18 times faster than Germany’s”, and claimed this growth had caused problems such as housing shortages, overburdened infrastructure and a rise in crime.
In response Switzerland’s Justice and Police Minister Beat Jans said the new package of agreements between the EU and the Federal Council included a safeguard clause, if EU immigration spiked.
READ ALSO: Swiss minister hails EU deal: ‘If the British had this, there’d have been no Brexit’
Switzerland’s lower chamber of parliament had already voted against the “No to 10 million” initiative earlier in the autumn.
