Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to limit the country’s population to 10 million, with nearly 55% voting against and 45% in favour, delivering a clear defeat to the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP/UDC) anti-immigration agenda and preserving Switzerland’s free movement agreement with the European Union.
The result was welcomed by the government, Swiss business groups, and all other major political parties, who had united in opposition to the cap.
Switzerland’s justice minister, Beat Jans, said the result was “a sign of stability, openness and reliability.”
Turnout stood at 60%, relatively high by Swiss standards.
SVP’s Initiative Proposed Capping Switzerland’s Population At 10 Million
Notably, the country’s current population stands at 9.1 million, up from 7.3 million in 2002.
The initiative, launched by the SVP/UDC, proposed capping Switzerland’s resident population at 10 million. The SVP argued that unchecked population growth is driving up rents, overcrowding public transport, straining hospitals and schools, and damaging the environment
The supporters’ main argument is that there was little room to spare before the threshold was breached.
But the consequences of a yes vote for the anti-immigration agenda would have extended far beyond a simple demographic ceiling.
Economiesuisse’s chief economist, Rudolf Minsch, had warned during the campaign that a yes vote “could face challenges in our relations with the EU.”
Switzerland’s participation in the EU’s free movement of people is the legal foundation for its access to Europe’s single market.
Had the cap been approved, Switzerland would have been obliged to terminate that agreement. Over half of all Swiss exports go to EU member states, making the relationship critical to the Swiss economy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had deliberately stayed out of the campaign, welcomed the result once votes were counted: “The Swiss people have spoken. The EU and Switzerland share deep ties and a strong partnership.”
Both the Swiss government and business leaders said the vote signals that non-EU member Switzerland wants to maintain close ties with Europe, a message that carries particular weight at a moment when the two sides are deepening their bilateral relationship.
In Cities With Immigrant Communities, The Proposal Was Decisively Rejected
In cities, where immigrant communities are larger and labour market dependence on foreign workers is most visible, the proposal was decisively rejected.
In the capital Bern, almost 84% of voters said no. Both canton Graubünden (home to St Moritz) and canton Valais (home to Zermatt and the Matterhorn) rejected the cap, reflecting the hospitality industry’s dependence on foreign labour. Half of all hotel workers in Switzerland are immigrants. Hospitals and care homes are similarly reliant on workers from abroad.
Rural areas showed more sympathy for the proposal, but not enough to overcome the urban majority.
SVP President Marcel Dettling acknowledged the defeat but was defiant: “The vote showed that the population wants solutions. Not a single problem has been solved.”
The party’s case was made in human terms by Nils Fiechter, 29, a People’s Party member of Bern’s cantonal parliament and a prominent voice in the campaign. “We have lost control,” he told the BBC. “Unchecked immigration is leading to Switzerland no longer being Switzerland.”
Fiechter, it should be noted, was convicted by the Swiss Federal Court in 2022 for racial discrimination in connection with a poster targeting Roma and traveller communities that he distributed in 2018.
Helin Genis, 31, a Social Democrat elected to Bern city council, told the BBC: “It is not migrants who determine rent levels. It is not migrants who raise health insurance premiums. Nor is it migrants who make political decisions on housing, infrastructure or social investment.”
“Viewing problems through the lens of migration does not lead to solutions, but to division,” said Genis, commenting on SVP’s anti-immigration agenda.
Why SVP’s Anti-Immigration Agenda Failed?
The structural economic reality is that 20% of Switzerland’s population is now over 65. The country is not generating enough young workers and taxpayers domestically to fund and staff an ageing population’s needs. Young, skilled, and taxpaying foreign workers are becoming essential to keeping the system solvent.
Jon Pult, a Social Democrat member of parliament, said his greatest concern about the cap had been the prospect of Switzerland finding itself isolated in “an unstable and dangerous world.”
Does the rejection of the cap dissolve the tensions that made the initiative possible?
Rents remain high. Public transport is crowded. Health insurance premiums continue to rise. Housing supply is under pressure. These are the grievances the People’s Party successfully channelled into a nationwide vote. And they will continue to shape Swiss politics regardless of Sunday’s result.
What the vote did show, however, is that a majority of Swiss citizens are unwilling to accept the premise that immigration is the primary cause of those problems.
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