Most Swiss back initiative to cap population at 10M, poll shows

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/most-swiss-back-initiative-cap-population-10-million-poll-shows-2026-04-29/

by naves • 3 months ago

15 11 3 months ago

afpx3• 3 months ago

625 persons per square mile sounds pretty nice. Where I live is about 3000 per square mile, and the county is about 750 per square mile. And, it's a pleasant Human-scale density.

martey• 3 months ago

This initiative isn't about maintaining a certain population density, it's about restricting immigration and separating Switzerland from the European Union.

afpx3• 3 months ago

A lot of people have reached a point where asylum and family reunification aren't high priorities anymore. Over the past 30 years, developed nations have helped 1.5 Billion people get out of extreme poverty. That's huge! But, now many would like to give those people the tools to build their own infrastructure, education systems, health care systems, economies, etc.

manuelmoreale• 3 months ago

Interesting how different perspectives work. It’s less than 400 per square mile in my corner of the country. It’s less than 80 in my area and this feels right for how I want to live.

afpx3• 3 months ago

We’re probably more aligned than not. Within a 40 mile radius, there are a few small towns < 100k, but the rest is low density rural. Unfortunately at the edge there is high density, and skews the average.

FabCH2• 3 months ago

Yeah well, the source of the information is super suspicious. Let me translate this to different locales:

en_US: „Fox news survey shows most people against immigration“

en_UK: „The Sun readers would vote for even tougher brexit, polls show“

It’s not exactly surprising that people who read 20min vote in line with SVP.

If you want more neutral information about Swiss politics, swissinfo.ch is the independent public media corporation.

Leherenn• 3 months ago

The poll is by Tamedia, a reliable polling company (as much as any polling company can be). It has been widely cited in others media, including the public one.

There is significant support for the initiative. Initiatives tend to lose steam as time go by, so it might not be enough in the end, but like Brexit, don't underestimate it.

FabCH2• 3 months ago

Let's not pretend like Tamedia doesn't have a bias that has a significant overlap with people who tend to follow the SVP vote suggestions. Much like it's well known NZZ will come out with articles against the 10 million cap because it has a significant FDP bias. Swiss private media has well known biases and is just thinly veiled propaganda most of the time.

But SRG does a good job at presenting things neutrally.

Of course nobody should underestimate the initiative. But I think you will agree that "Most Swiss back initiative to cap population at 10 million" is a sensationalist title since most people probably didn't make up their mind about their vote yet.

dmitrygr• 3 months ago

This makes the strategy of picking who precisely is allowed in a lot more interesting. I look forward to hearing how they solve this.

_caw• 3 months ago

It's not "Most Swiss", it's 52% of survey respondants (8,411 people) out of the 9.1 million population.

dsign• 3 months ago

I envy those countries on Earth that have democracy and generally have it so good that they are picky about who cleans their toilets and drives their busses and tends to them at the hospice. Speaking of the latter, they must have already taken care of the things which are coming for them, and legislated a while ago that every citizen is going to become a medical researcher and work at the forefront of the battle against cancer and aging, not to mention running 10 kilometers a week, at least. Ahh the heavenly first world…

Most Swiss back initiative to cap population at 10M, poll shows

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