Swiss right-wing party gathers signatures to limit population growth
A representative of the Swiss People’s Party says the group has managed to collect the necessary 100,000 signatures for its initiative to limit the population to 10 million.
“The initiative is ready,” Zurich parliamentarian Thomas Matter told the Blick newspaper on Saturday.
According to Matter, around 110,000 signatures had been collected since July last year. He is now calling on the local sections of the People’s Party to return remaining signature forms quickly.
Matter added that the party intends to hand in the signatures at the end of March or beginning of April this year. Theoretically, it still has until January 4, 2025 to collect signatures.
+ People’s initiatives and referendums: how Swiss direct democracy works
The initiative calls for the introduction of a new article on “sustainable population development” to be added to the Swiss constitution, and concretely demands that the permanent resident population should not exceed ten million people before 2050.
In the event that the population exceeds nine-and-a-half million, the government and parliament would first have to take measures in the area of asylum, according to the text of the initiative. For example, once the 9.5 million threshold is exceeded, temporarily admitted persons would no longer be able to obtain a residence or settlement permit.
+ The numbers behind Swiss population growth
If these measures are not sufficient, the initiative demands the cancellation of the Freedom of Movement agreement with the European Union.
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