Switzerland’s leading party calls on voters to reject the free movement of people with the EU on Sunday in the name of “chosen immigration”. This proposal is unlikely to pass, but the surprise “yes” of 2014 calls for caution.
Six years ago, the Swiss had thus approved, by a very narrow majority, a first popular initiative of the Democratic Union of the Center (UDC, populist right) reintroducing quotas of migrants, especially Europeans.
This time, the SVP, believing that the Alpine country “suffers from uncontrolled and disproportionate immigration” and that “jobs are threatened”, launched a new initiative aimed at ending the Agreement on the free movement of persons ( ALCP) signed in 1999 with the European Union.
“It is about recovering an attribute of sovereignty which is the control of immigration,” Vincent Schaller, UDC municipal councilor in Geneva, told AFP. “The UDC is for a chosen immigration”.
In 1992, the Swiss voted “no” when their country entered the European Economic Area, an agreement signed by the member states of the European Community, the ancestor of the EU, and the member countries of the European Union. ‘European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
Since then, Bern and Brussels have signed multiple bilateral agreements. But their relationship grew strained after the 2014 vote.
This vote provoked the anger of the EU, which then excluded the Swiss from the Erasmus program. Fearing other more serious reprisals, Bern had softened the text of the initiative’s implementation: adopted in 2016 by the parliament, it gives a national preference to hiring and established additional formalities for employers based in Switzerland wanting bring in European employees.
The adoption of this watered-down version of its first initiative sparked the ire of the SVP, which responded by launching its new initiative, much more radical, accompanied by the slogan “Too much is too much” and a poster. representing a European who crushes Switzerland by sitting on it.
“Guillotine clause”
Six years after the 2014 vote, Swiss anxieties over European immigration seem to have subsided somewhat, with polls predicting a rejection of the initiative by nearly 65%.
“The conditions have nevertheless changed significantly compared to 2014”, noted the political scientist Pascal Sciarni, explaining to AFP that the surveys showed that part of the population who had voted in favor of the first initiative had understood that the EU was not prepared to accept everything.
As for the coronavirus pandemic, during which Switzerland closed its borders for several weeks, he estimated that it does not seem to have had a major impact on voting intentions. “The balance of power seems stable”, he noted.
And, more than ever, the SVP went it alone during the campaign.
Government, parliament, unions, employers, parties … all called for a stand up against the populist right, recalling that the EU remains Switzerland’s main trading partner and that entire sectors of the economy, in particular in the border regions, depend on the European workforce.
The government also warned that because of the “so-called guillotine clause”, a unilateral denunciation of the AFMP would lead, six months later, to the automatic termination of six other bilateral agreements (notably concerning public procurement, agriculture and land transport) and would also risk calling into question other important treaties concluded with the EU.
In Brussels, Dana Spinant, spokesperson for the European Commission, declined to comment on the vote, but recalled that the EU intended to approve the framework agreement with Switzerland “also as soon as possible after clarification of the points ”raised by Berne concerning in particular the protection of wages and State aid.
For several years, the EU has wanted to conclude an institutional framework agreement with Bern to simplify bilateral relations. This agreement is far from being unanimous in Switzerland, on the left and on the right.
In the meantime, the Swiss are expected to approve on Sunday the purchase of new fighter jets to the tune of 6 billion Swiss francs (5.6 billion euros) and the establishment of a two-week paternity leave.