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Swiss People’s Party rejects EU package and demands vote

SVP rejects EU package and demands vote with majority of the cantons
SVP rejects EU package and demands vote with majority of the cantons Keystone-SDA

The right-wing Swiss People’s Party has rejected the government's proposal for the newly negotiated European Union treaty package in its entirety during the consultation process. The party is also calling for the entire package to be subject to a mandatory referendum.

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This is because “the dynamic adoption of legislation, the creation of new institutions, the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the restrictions on federalism” would have an impact on state policy.

The People’s Party told the media in Bern on Monday that as the present package was also “coherent as a whole”, it should not be split up in the event of a vote.

+ Two Swiss parties face dilemma on agreements with EU

The party also wants to renounce the proposal “in principle” – as well as “further negotiations with the European Union regarding Switzerland’s institutional integration into the EU bureaucracy”.

Both the country’s openness and its institutions would have to be abandoned or restricted if the newly negotiated EU treaties were accepted, the People’s Party said. With the package, Switzerland is subjecting itself to EU regulations, it added.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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