{"id":23823,"date":"2026-06-14T11:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/14\/swiss-vote-against-proposal-to-cap-population-at-10-million-by-cutting-migration-projections-say-bbc\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T11:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:45:00","slug":"swiss-vote-against-proposal-to-cap-population-at-10-million-by-cutting-migration-projections-say-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/14\/swiss-vote-against-proposal-to-cap-population-at-10-million-by-cutting-migration-projections-say-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss vote against proposal to cap population at 10 million by cutting migration, projections say &#8211; BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Voters in Switzerland have rejected a proposal to limit the country&#x27;s population to 10 million, early projections suggest.<br \/>Not all votes have been counted, but the current trend suggests 55% of participants voted against, to 45% for.<br \/>The proposal <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cx23kz7e76po\" class=\"LinkUrl-styles__LinkUrlStyled-sc-f4e3b82f-0 eGAhOs\">came from the right-wing Swiss People&#x27;s Party<\/a>, which has long campaigned on an anti-immigration platform.<br \/>The divisive vote risked putting the country&#x27;s free movement agreement with the European Union in jeopardy.<br \/>Switzerland&#x27;s population has grown rapidly since 2002, when it stood at 7.3 million. Now it is 9.1 million, 27% of whom are Swiss residents who were born abroad.<br \/>However, the People Party&#x27;s says that capping the population would reduce pressure on transport, housing and the environment seem not to have persuaded enough voters.<br \/>Although the Swiss People&#x27;s Party insisted the population cap was designed to protect Switzerland&#x27;s public services and its environment, it has a long history of campaigning on an anti immigrant platform, frequently blaming asylum seekers and minorities for societal problems.<br \/>Many others were seemingly worried at the prospect of losing much-needed workers in tourism, hospitals, and care homes. <br \/>Others, in particular Swiss business leaders, feared losing Switzerland&#x27;s crucial access to Europe&#x27;s single market. <br \/>Over half of all Swiss products are sold into the EU, but their access to Europe&#x27;s markets depends on Swiss commitment to Europe&#x27;s free movement of people. Had the population cap been approved, Switzerland would have had to terminate that agreement.<br \/>It is also likely that some Swiss voters were nervous about a move which could leave their country isolated in what is a very unstable world.<br \/> Although neutral, Switzerland, like its neighbours in Europe, is spending more on defence, and has been exploring ways to co-ordinate more closely with European on security.<br \/>Switzerland&#x27;s system of <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-17980650\" class=\"LinkUrl-styles__LinkUrlStyled-sc-f4e3b82f-0 eGAhOs\">direct democracy<\/a> means all major decisions are taken via the ballot box. Campaigners simply have to gather 100,000 signatures to ensure a nationwide vote.<br \/>Two young politicians with opposing views on limiting the Swiss population spoke to the BBC prior to the vote. <br \/>&quot;We have lost control,&quot; complains Nils Fiechter, 29, who represents the Swiss People&#x27;s Party in canton Bern&#x27;s parliament. <br \/>&quot;Unchecked immigration is leading to Switzerland no longer being Switzerland,&quot; he said.<br \/>In 2022, Fiechter and his co-president of the People&#x27;s Party&#x27;s youth wing were convicted of racial discrimination by the Swiss Federal Court, in relation to a poster they distributed in 2018 targeting Roma and traveller communities.<br \/>He believes Switzerland&#x27;s problems, which he says include a &quot;housing shortage, gridlocked traffic, overburdened schools and strained social services&quot;, are a direct result of immigration.<br \/>But Helin Genis, a 31-year-old Social Democrat elected to Bern city council, dismissed these arguments as scapegoating.<br \/>She told BBC News: &quot;It is not migrants who determine rent levels. It is not migrants who raise health insurance premiums. Nor is it migrants who make political decisions on housing, infrastructure or social investment.&quot;<br \/>Viewing problems &#x27;&quot;through the lens of migration does not lead to solutions, but to division&quot;, she added.<br \/>Marius Borg H\u00f8iby will appear via video link, almost three months after his trial came to an end on 40 charges, including four counts of rape.<br \/>He, and his wife Diana Fox Carney, arrived at Dublin Airport at about 10:00 local time and met Taoiseach (Irish PM) Miche\u00e1l Martin. <br \/>Most shops, cafes, pubs and businesses along County Road, Liverpool, stay closed for the protest.<br \/>The UK government says its going to crackdown on illegal migrants living in Northern Ireland.<br \/>Arrests were made at DPD parcel delivery depots in Basingstoke and Newbury.<br \/>Copyright 2026 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\u00a0<a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/editorialguidelines\/guidance\/links-and-feeds\" class=\"LinkUrl-styles__LinkUrlStyled-sc-f4e3b82f-0 eGAhOs\"><b id=\"read-about-our-approach-to-external-linking.\" class=\"TextFragment-styles__TextFragmentStyled-sc-99e7c69b-0 fa-DACi\">Read about our approach to external linking.<\/b><\/a><br \/>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiWkFVX3lxTE9EZldRQWpMbVZGMVM4T2VianNoU3JpdXMxR3JlbHV6cWZRRE9BSEt3Q1RicnhCUDNmbVNLVGpPSzhzdU81TXB3dER4VngzV2pJeF95YlVVSEt1QQ?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Voters in Switzerland have rejected a proposal to limit the country&#x27;s population to 10 million, early projections suggest.Not all votes have been counted, but the current trend suggests 55% of participants voted against, to 45% for.The proposal came from the right-wing Swiss People&#x27;s Party, which has long campaigned on an anti-immigration platform.The divisive vote risked [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}