Swiss government warns against capping population at 10 million
The Swiss government, together with the cantons and labour unions, has warned against the popular initiative "No to ten million Switzerland".
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Swiss government warns against capping population at 10 million
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They argue the proposal would jeopardise Switzerland’s prosperity, security and humanitarian tradition. Switzerland relies heavily on foreign workers, who represented a third of the total workforce in the country at the end of 2022.
The initiative could force the country to terminate its free-movement accord with the European Union if the threshold is approached.
On Monday in Bern, Justice Minister Beat Jans warned that an end to the free movement of persons would jeopardise the bilateral approach and exacerbate staff shortages. He appeared together with representatives of the cantons, employers and trade unions.
Participation in the Schengen and Dublin agreements would also be jeopardised. The Schengen/Dublin cooperation facilitates close cooperation between the EU Member States and the associated States in border, justice, police, visa and asylum-related matters.
The police would lose access to search databases. In addition, Switzerland would face more asylum applications and costs in the hundreds of millions.
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Swiss voters to decide on population cap and civilian service reform
Nationwide vote
The “No to ten million Switzerland” initiative, put forward by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, seeks to cap the country’s permanent resident population at ten million by 2050. Under the proposal, the government and parliament would be required to act as soon as the population exceeds 9.5 million.
Swiss voters will vote on the initiative on June 14.
Join the debate:
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