Nearly 55% of voters in Switzerland on Sunday rejected an initiative championed by the top right-wing party to cap the rich Alpine country’s population at 10 million, early results showed.
The populist Swiss People’s Party, which has the most seats in parliament, has stirred up and fostered anti-migration sentiment over the years, notably about an influx of workers from the neighboring European Union.
Some have dubbed the proposal a “Swiss Brexit” because it could jeopardize Switzerland’s deep ties to the European Union anchored by deals that foster economic growth, cultural ties and cross-border travel, among other things. Switzerland is not one of the EU’s 27 member states, but it is all but surrounded by four of them
Aww yep, good to hear only 45% support ‘capping’ the people they don’t like, phew.
Well, you have to see it in a bit of a context. Many votes in Switzerland are concluded on a much tighter scale. Sometimes stuff gets accepted or declined by 50.5% or even less. 55% against the initiative is pretty decent, especially when it looked like it would pass for a long time. Me personally I would have liked to see 95% against this crap, but this has never happened on any matter that was voted on, so…
Also, the cities and suburbs, with the supposed “problems of immigration” right in front of their doorstep, all declined the initiative. It was the country side and small communities that aren’t even affected by immigration, that voted for it. This shows once again, that fear is a powerful tool to mobilize masses. Thankfully it didn’t work this time but we gotta stay alert and fight the narrative of fearmongering every single day.
Source: Me, I’m Swiss.
Another indication that interacting with others from outside your bubble is the best vaccine against right wing rethoric regarding immigration: in rural areas and suburbs such interactions tend to be much rarer than within the city…
It’s so fucking embarrassing to be a human being and watch dumb shit like this and authoritarianism growing around the world.
So many countries started because of this kind of shit I’ve human history, but we’re all outta globe to pack our shit and start a proper country with blackjack and hookers…🫤
somehow you left this comment five times
Holy shit…appreciate the heads up! Its funny too, the top one is the only one with the spelling correction edit. No idea what happened but thanks for pointing it out!
My thoughts exactly. Everyone is like “the Swiss have spoken and are clearly not supporting capping the population”. And I feel like that is not really showing the reality…