Surprisingly, the vote on limiting Switzerland's population to 10 million may actually pass. Usually votes for things that will hurt the economy don't come close to passing but right now the limit is a few percent ahead.

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HPsquared 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"A good economy" means different things to different people.

Expensive houses and low wages, vs appreciating assets and low labour costs.

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GeoAtreides 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>the vote on limiting Switzerland's population to 10 million

google searches 10 minutes after it passes: what is EU ‎guillotine clause

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peterfirefly 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Switzerland has treaties with the EU. The EU would prefer a single treaty, Switzerland prefers lots of piecemeal treaties.

Current political climate in Switzerland is a bit like Brexit before Brexit: lots of populist blathering about how the EU exploits Switzerland so there are lots of votes in being anti-EU and in demanding "fair" deals ("fair" always means "more for me, less for you").

These treaties are currently being renegotiated -- I think some of them technically expired but both sides pretend they are still valid during the negotiations.

There are forces in Switzerland that would like to break one or more of the treaties and keep the others.

The EU won't like that so we got guillotine clauses = if one treaty is no longer valid, none of them are valid, to prevent the Swiss from playing funny games.

One of the Swiss complaints is fair: they provide roads for lots and lots of EU transit traffic.

	▲	benhurmarcel 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> they provide roads for lots and lots of EU transit traffic Not for free though

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sidewndr46 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

how would that even work? mandatory contraception or something?

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comrade1234 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

If the population hits 10 million they would try to limit the freedom of movement agreement with the eu, which means they would lose free trade with the eu. Kind of like brexit.

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cybrox 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's just a buzzword to say limit immigration with rising population.

I'll leave out my opinion on the topic but Switzerland has become noticeably more crowded in the last 20 years.

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sidewndr46 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I was surprised to learn that Switzerland's population is still that small.

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bakies 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Your opinion is showing

	▲	cybrox 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I expected this comment to be made anyways, so I didn't even bother rephrasing. If it helps you, I don't support the initiative. Doesn't change the fact that rental property is scarse, public transport is full and children/teacher ratio is horrendous.

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fainpul 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The birth rate in Switzerland (just as in many highly developed countries) is already way below 2.1 children per woman, which would be required to sustain the population. Any population growth comes from immigrants. Xenophobic people are scared by that.

	▲	senordevnyc 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Sorry, but it’s not xenophobic to care about your culture and not want it to shift too fast. The left’s inability to grasp this is part of why right populism has taken hold all over the world over the last decade.

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ceejayoz 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Immigration and naturalization restrictions.

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esperent 13 hours ago | parent [-]

So if they hit ten million do they start kicking people out for every native baby born?

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crote 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Switzerland's fertility rate has been below the replacement rate of 2.1 babies / woman since the 1970s. There is zero chance of births pushing it above the 10M count. If anything, immigration is the sole reason the Swiss aren't going extinct.

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nalaj 12 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

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crote 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Following the same logic: everyone who isn't a Native American doesn't count as American.

And how are you going to count someone with one Swiss parent and one immigrant parent? Three Swiss grandparents and one immigrant grandparent? What are you going to do about all those people in Genève who had a forefather move over from Annecy 5 generations ago?

The fact that most Swiss people speak languages pretty damn close to German, French, and Italian should be a good indication that immigration does, in fact, create Swiss people.

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ryoshoe 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

What counts as a Swiss person? Would children of immigrants growing up in Swiss society, going to Swiss schools, and speaking the national languages of Switzerland count?

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quotz 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Swiss people are more strict about this than other parts of europe, so they lean more toward swiss ethnicity, also being open to neighbouring citizens. Last being immigrants from outside europe.

	▲	nalaj 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		More like Switzerland has direct democracy so they can make their voices heard.

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thefounder 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No, they just stop accepting immigrants.