Last month, the Swiss government announced that the country will hold a referendum on the anti-migration Swiss People’s Party’s initiative to amend the constitution with a cap on the permanent resident population at 10 million.
Emergency immigration restrictions would kick in at… pic.twitter.com/BSoTasJM2N
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 16, 2026
Last month, the Swiss government announced that the country will hold a referendum on the anti-migration Swiss People’s Party’s initiative to amend the constitution with a cap on the permanent resident population at 10 million.
Emergency immigration restrictions would kick in at 9.5 million to prevent the population exceeding 10 million by 2050.
Switzerland’s current population is approximately 9.1 million, with growth largely driven by immigration rather than natural births.
The government and parliament oppose the initiative, warning it could lead to labor shortages, economic disruption, chaos in sectors like healthcare and housing.
The SVP argues the cap will protect infrastructure, environment, schools, hospitals and overall quality of life from strains caused by large numbers of migrants.
Recent polls showed it as a close race: around 48% in favor, 42% against.
This is a standard direct democracy process in Switzerland in which popular initiatives that gather enough signatures trigger mandatory referendums.
The Swiss people have had enough of migration and want to keep their country as it was, without any drastic changes to the ethnic composition of its population.
Federal Popular Initiative information with language choice can be read about here:
https://nachhaltigkeitsinitiative.ch/initiative/
h/t KeepIt