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“No experiments!” That was the slogan of the CDU campaign in 1957. Konrad Adenauer responded to the SPD, who at that time asked Germany to leave NATO. He prevailed. The Swiss government is currently struggling to successfully defend itself against a radical breakthrough, which is why Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter was heard at a press conference with the words: “This is not the time for political experiments.” .
The experiment, which the policy of the FDP and with it the entire government and the vast majority of the parliament in Bern absolutely want to avoid, consists in the termination of the free movement agreement between Switzerland and the EU, which also links Switzerland with the European Union. . it was at stake.
The advance in this direction comes from the experimental laboratory of the national conservative Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the country’s strongest political force with a voter turnout of nearly 26 percent. The SVP has launched a popular initiative with the not entirely neutral title formulated “For moderate immigration.” In it, he calls for the free movement agreement, which has been in force since 2002, on the basis of which EU citizens seek work in Switzerland and Swiss citizens can easily live and work in the EU, be repealed. The vote on this initiative should take place in mid-May, but it was postponed until the end of September due to the corona pandemic.
24 percent of foreigners in Switzerland
According to the SVP, the free movement of persons has contributed significantly to the fact that a total of one million foreigners have moved to Switzerland during the last 13 years. 2.1 million foreigners currently live in the country. That corresponds to 24 percent of the total population. The share of EU and EFTA citizens in the total population is 17 percent. Most of the newcomers come from Italy (15.3 percent of foreigners), Germany (14.6), Portugal (12) and France (6.7).
In the opinion of the vice president, the influx from abroad, which is already far from the previous highs and which will continue to decrease significantly this year due to the economic situation, is causing an increase in foreign arrivals, the increase in the prices of properties, traffic jams in the streets, crowded public transport and concreting. the landscape through new buildings.
However, in the event that Switzerland terminates the agreement on the free movement of persons to independently re-control immigration from the EU, six additional bilateral agreements will automatically expire under the so-called guillotine clause. These concern the dismantling of technical trade barriers, public procurement, agriculture, research, and air and land transport. This contract package, which was painstakingly negotiated over a seven-year period at the time, gives the heavily export-oriented Swiss economy largely unrestricted access to the European domestic market with its 500 million customers.
Confederates benefit more than any other country
Since more than half of exports go to the EU, this preferential access, which no other third country enjoys in this way, contributes significantly to the prosperity of Switzerland. According to a study by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Swiss benefit more than any other nation from participating in the domestic market. According to various surveys, immigration has not yet reduced employment opportunities or wages for the local population. Until the outbreak of the Crown crisis, there was almost full employment in Switzerland.
However, there is now the threat of a recession in Switzerland, the consequences of which cannot yet be foreseen. Justice Minister Keller-Sutter referred to this when warning against political experiments: In her view, cutting off important access for Swiss companies to the EU internal market now would exacerbate the crisis. The fact that industrial products are automatically recognized as EU compliant thanks to bilateral agreements saves exporters a lot of time and effort.
