Referendum in Switzerland: voters reject the end of free movement with the EU

Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to end an agreement with the EU that allows the free movement of people.

With all the votes in the referendum counted, nearly 62% said they wanted to maintain free movement, while 38% were against.

Switzerland is not a member of the EU but has a series of interdependent treaties with Brussels that allow it to access Europe’s free trade area.

The measure to curb immigration was proposed by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), but the government opposed it.

A similar initiative to introduce EU immigrant quotas to Switzerland was approved by a narrow margin in a 2014 referendum, damaging relations between Switzerland and the EU.

The Swiss people have a direct voice in their own affairs under the country’s system of direct democracy. They are regularly invited to vote on various issues in national or regional referendums.

Supporters of the anti-free movement plan said it would allow Switzerland to control its borders and select only as many immigrants as it wants.

Opponents argued that it would plunge a healthy economy into recession at an uncertain time and deprive hundreds of thousands of Swiss citizens of their freedom to live and work across Europe.

Switzerland, a landlocked country that has observed neutrality for centuries, has over time oscillated between seeking a closer engagement with the EU and preferring a more isolationist course.

Sunday’s referendum could have forced the Swiss government to unilaterally annul its free movement agreement with the EU by invoking the so-called guillotine clause.

This clause would have affected other bilateral agreements on transport, research and trade with the EU, interrupting economic activity.

Right-wing SVP president Marco Chiesa admitted that his campaign had struggled to gain sufficient support for a proposal opposed by the government, parliament and traditional unions.

Faced with this opposition, Chiesa framed the campaign as a “fight between David and Goliath.” “But we will continue fighting for the country and we will regain control of immigration,” he said.

Opponents of the proposal said the result was an expression of Swiss support for open bilateral relations with the EU. They said voters were concerned about the economic cost of ending free movement during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The bilateral path is the right one for Switzerland and for the EU,” Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told reporters. “The Swiss people have reconfirmed this path today.”

“Today is a great day for relations between the European Union and Switzerland,” tweeted the president of the European Council, Charles Michel. “The Swiss people have spoken and sent a clear message: together we have a great future ahead of us.”

Analysis by Imogen Foulkes, BBC News correspondent in Geneva

Swiss voters have said a convincing “no” to ending the free movement of people in the EU.

The People’s Party argued that immigration from Europe was to blame for the population increase and placed an unsustainable burden on Switzerland’s public services and environment.

In the past, the party has done well with anti-immigration campaigns, but not this time. The economic consequences were clear.

About 60% of Swiss exports go to Europe, for example. Furthermore, half a million Swiss live and work in the EU, and 1.4 million EU citizens work in Switzerland, many in the health service.

Ending free movement would have jeopardized the entire relationship with Europe.

Brussels has always told the Swiss that they cannot choose: there is no free trade without free movement. Today, Swiss voters have shown that they believe the agreement is reasonable.

A referendum on paternity leave for new parents was one of the other issues in Sunday’s vote.

The initiative was backed by a majority of voters, heralding a major change in Switzerland, a country that is considered to lag behind its European neighbors when it comes to parental leave.

Under the proposal, parents will be granted two weeks of paid leave for the first time within six months of the birth of a child. They will also be entitled to receive 80% of their salary, up to a maximum of 196 Swiss francs (£ 165; $ 210) per day.

In addition, voters narrowly approved a government plan to buy new fighter jets and blocked a revision of Switzerland’s hunting law that would have made it easier to kill protected species like wolves.

The Swiss referendum was already in the works before the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016.

The SVP, the largest party in Switzerland’s parliament, has used similar arguments to Brexiters about the benefits of having more control over immigration.

But net migration to Switzerland is actually declining right now, and there is a sense that voters are getting tired of the party’s anti-immigration message.

The strong vote in favor of free movement could strengthen Brussels’ hand with London and be a signal to the UK of what kinds of compromises might be necessary to reach a free trade agreement with the EU.

1992: The Swiss vote between 50.3% and 49.7% against joining the European Economic Area

1992-2002: Switzerland negotiates and then signs the first bilateral agreements with the EU (they are interdependent and include the free movement of people) backed by a vote in 2000

2005: Switzerland votes to join the European Schengen open borders treaty and extend free movement to 10 new EU states

2009: Vote to extend freedom of movement to new EU members Romania and Bulgaria

2014: Switzerland backs EU worker quotas