Swiss voters reject proposal to cap Population at 10M

https://www.ft.com/content/633980b1-06ef-4e83-8551-7b5c6d55d4ac

by cwwc • 1 month ago

39 20 1 month ago

lukeify6• 1 month ago

Without these kinds of policies you'll just see the rise of more "new-right" parties like One Nation in Australia and Reform in the United Kingdom (yes, I am aware both are not "new", but they are newly popular).

It turns out there is a sufficient amount of immigration that is disliked by the populace that they will dump support for long-standing parties in favour of those who promise change.

jojomodding• 1 month ago

Switzerland already has such a party, the SVP (UDC in French), and in fact they put forward the initiative.

This was widely understood to be a vote on how well the SVP can appeal to the center. Turns out pretty well but it's not entirely surprising given their recent election results.

lukeify6• 1 month ago

Yeah.

So what will realistically happen, if we look at the trajectories of other countries, is that immigration will continue to rise, more people will be peaked by the discontent it can sow, and the popularity of this party will rise further.

add-sub-mul-div• 1 month ago

Imagine taking away from the last century of world history the lesson that we should proactively give in to demagogues.

lukeify6• 1 month ago

And it's criticisms like this that isolate people further from each other politically and emboldens support for the parties you dislike.

There are valid and reasonable reasons to dislike large-scale immigration beyond supporting despots for the sake of doing so. The mainstream parties are not offering alternatives, can you blame those who are disaffected by this rapid societal change from reaching out to support the first name that voices critique at policies they dislike?

flawn• 1 month ago

Not sure if there is any in-depth analysis across more countries about this pattern, but also in this votum, densely populated urban areas had a clear stance against this votum, whereas the majority of votes have come from rural areas. So I am not as certain as you are whether the trend extrapolates as outlined - I rather imagine that the polarization will increase even further across these two segments, with lived and experienced realities drifting apart.

Newlaptop• 1 month ago

Voters rejected a proposal, and your response is that the result will be more parties that support the type of thing that the majority of voters just rejected?

In a sense, you may be correct, but who cares? The majority of people voted against xenophobia, some people are still super xenophobic and will continue to try to implement xenophobic policies, and the majority of people will keep voting against them.

lukeify6• 1 month ago

Disliking mass immigration isn't xenophobia.

sinuhe69• 1 month ago

The Swiss people voted in a folks referendum, not per parties’ delegate. Thus, it’s not politics as in other countries but the direct responses of the population. Switzerland is a direct democracy that doesn’t need alt right parties to “revenge” and support chance.

rchaud• 1 month ago

The UK far right got what they wanted with Brexit, yet they are still complaining. There's no evidence indicating that capitulating to their extreme policies will somehow lead to them becoming friendlier to the political establishment.

bad_username• 1 month ago

Honestly to me it seems that the objectively unprecedented migration levels in the UK of the last decade (caused explicitly by government policy) are better suited to be called "extreme" or "far" than the demands to roll them back

lukeify6• 1 month ago

I find it interesting you label the majority of voters in the populace who voted for Brexit as "far right", and not just "right".

ChrisArchitect• 1 month ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529149

amazingamazing• 1 month ago

Three questions:

1. If i were to magically appear in Switzerland as say a middle easterner or random non european national how long can i stay? How would i be removed?

2. How long as a regular person without a job or special skills until i can be citizen?

3. How often do either of the two above happen?

Swiss voters reject proposal to cap Population at 10M

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