The Swiss people are set to be offered a referendum on immigration after a petition calling for the population not to go above 10 million by 2050 reached 100,000 signatures.
In a rare expression of direct action the people of the landlocked mountain nation are to be asked if they believe the number of people in the country has reached a peak.
Swiss People’s Party launched the petition calling for the nation to promote “sustainable population development”. Currently the small Swiss population is around 8.7 million, compared to 67.3 million people in the UK.
By 2050 some predictions forecast Britain’s figure will reach 74 million. Among the measures wanting to be imposed by the petition in the Alpine country are limits on asylum seekers.
Swiss People’s Party representative Thomas Matter, told the Swiss newspaper Blick, immigration from 30,000 asylum seekers in Switzerland had caused a “population explosion” that was unsustainable.
He added: “The issue of migration is on everyone’s lips. Since 2002, Switzerland’s population has increased by 1.5 million. In 2022 alone, including Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers, more than 180,000 people were added.
“It’s simply a fact. Mass immigration is responsible for the population explosion and all the problems that result from it. The housing crisis, rising rents, increased health and social costs, traffic jams, crowded trains, power shortages, integration problems in schools, our health system near collapse and an increase in serious crime.
“We are reaching the limit in almost all areas. We cannot sustain such growth if we want to preserve our beautiful Switzerland.”
Mr Matter’s party are the largest in the Swiss Federal Assembly, with 62 members of the National Council and six of the Council of States.
The party successfully campaigned against minarets on mosques in 2009, and has argued for many years immigration can be a drain on Swiss prosperity.
In December, in neighbouring Germany, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to curb numbers and speed up deportations of rejected asylum seekers.
