When the far-right Swiss People’s Party SVP used to organize a referendum against immigration and cooperation with the EU, the country was always full of posters showing black sheep (foreigners) crossing the border wanting to join white sheep (Swiss). Or you saw a black glove trying to steal Swiss francs. Xenophobia and Euroscepticism were evident.
On June 14, there will be another referendum in Switzerland, again launched by the SVP – the country’s largest party for more than thirty years. And again it is about immigration and the EU. But the black sheep and shady gloves are missing this time. For once, this referendum does not refer to criminal foreigners or the monstrous Brussels, but to ‘sustainability’ and the environment. It asks voters to agree to a maximum population of ten million.
If this referendum passes – according to polls is currently 50-50 – Switzerland becomes the first country in the world with a legal limit on population size. There are now 9.1 million inhabitants. At 9.5 million, the government must take emergency measures to limit immigration, such as a ban on family reunification. At ten million no one can get in anymore. The reason, according to the SVP? Overcrowded trains, rising house prices, more and more traffic jams on the road. The title of the referendum is ‘Sustainability Initiative’.
Most immigrants in Switzerland are Europeans. They are well educated and do not pose a problem socially, politically or economically. Switzerland is surrounded by EU countries (France, Germany, Austria and Italy), has been in the Schengen zone for years and actively participates in the European internal market. Bern will soon ratify a treaty that it concluded with the EU after long negotiations, containing more than a hundred bilateral cooperation agreements between Bern and Brussels.
If the population limit is introduced, all those agreements will be in jeopardy. Swiss and EU residents now settle relatively freely in each other’s countries (under certain conditions). If one party violates that agreement, many other agreements will be nullified by a ‘guillotine clause’. Swiss companies could then lose access to the European market, students would be excluded from Erasmus exchanges and academics from research projects with European universities.
At a time when European countries outside the EU are strengthening ties with Brussels to stand stronger together against it bully from America, Russia and China – Iceland will hold a referendum on EU accession in August, the Norwegians are also considering such a referendum – the SVP is taking the opposite path. The Swiss like to set themselves apart from the rest of Europe. The country’s federal structure with powerful cantons, direct democracy and neutrality reinforce the feeling of being ‘other’. At most 15 to 20 percent of Swiss want to join the EU, and unlike in Norway and the United Kingdom, that percentage is not changing at the moment – not because of American tariffs, not because of the Iran war that makes the franc even more expensive, not because of the security fears that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is causing in Europe.
With the referendum, the SVP also appeals to non-extremist voters
The SVP’s message is precisely that international turbulence is the Home threatens and that the shutters must be closed. Now that the party is offering the population limit as a solution to the traffic jam problem and house prices, it also appeals to non-extremist voters. The opposition has great difficulty with this strategy.
In his book Abandoning Democracy for the Nation Montenegrin political scientist Filip Milacic writes that there is only one way to prevent the extreme right from running away with the national interest: to emphasize that national interest yourself, not as a fear story but as a positive counter-story. Donald Tusk became Prime Minister by arguing how valuable the EU is to Poland. The Israeli opposition fought controversial justice ‘reforms’ by defending the constitution. Rob Jetten waved Dutch flags.
Can the Swiss do anything with this advice? Yes, says Cenni Najy of the employers’ association Center Patronal in Lausanne: “By emphasizing our European identity. And the fact that in times of wars, tariffs and energy crises we should not become a small country without friends, but now we are stronger with other Europeans.” We’ll know on the 14th if it worked.