The EU has been rocked in the past few days by the news coming out of a country that doesn’t even belong to the 28-country bloc – Switzerland. The highly complex Swiss political system allows for regular national referenda to be held on issues of popular concern, if enough signatures can be gathered to put a measure on the ballot. The right-wing Swiss People’s Party managed to promote a referendum on the issue of restricting immigration – not just from Africa and Asia as we might expect, but even from other European countries. No-one expected it to pass, and polls in the last week suggested it would fail. But on the day of the vote the measure passed with 50.3% in favour and 49.7% against.
The implications are already worrying people across the continent, although the Swiss government has three years in which to draw up legislation to implement the vote – and will presumably be looking to do so in the least restrictive way possible, as much of Switzerland’s wealth comes through freedom of people and capital. Although Switzerland is outside the EU, it currently reaps all the major benefits of membership, including tariff-free trade and free movement. This vote puts all of that in jeopardy, and EU members like France have already suggested that it will mean re-examining the European relationship with Switzerland. All in all, it seems like an insane decision by the Swiss voters, and one which will damage them just as much as it will harm the rest of the continent.
That’s not to say Switzerland doesn’t have a certain amount of form on backwards referenda decisions. In 2009, the country voted to ban the construction of minarets on mosques, in a campaign that was marked by controversial race-baiting posters designed by the Swiss People’s Party. However, this latest vote feel more significant in terms of the resurgence of right-wing feeling in Switzerland and across Europe, as it suggests that ill-feeling towards foreigners is expanding from the usual targets of Africans and Arabs towards fellow Europeans. In the midst of an economic recession that shows no signs of ending anytime soon, Europeans have begun to turn on one another – the Greeks blame the Germans for their problems, the British blame the Romanians, the Ukrainians blame the Russians, and, it seems, the Swiss blame everybody but themselves. In this atmosphere, the Swiss People’s Party currently receive over 25% of the vote in Switzerland, and the equally anti-European United Kingdom Independence Party are set to come second in the forthcoming EU elections, ahead of the Conservative party that currently leads the government in the UK. The rest of Europe has not escaped the rise of this right-wing sentiment, and I’ll discuss some other examples in future blogs.
Ultimately, this intra-European tension helps nobody, and the idea of Switzerland, one of the richest countries in the world and vital part of the global economy, closing its borders seems ridiculous to everyone except the Swiss voters themselves. However, it does highlight the increasing tension which needs to be worked out within Europe – perhaps the wealthiest and most fortunate area on the planet, but which still contains so many people who feel left behind and excluded from the modern economy. This is clear in the breakdown of the Swiss vote, with rich, cosmopolitan areas like Geneva and Zurich voting strongly against the motion, but the rural areas that still rely on agriculture voting strongly in favour. In the modern European economy, some are winning while others continue to lose and to feel that their place in the world is slowly being eroded. The Swiss vote shows how vital it is to turn that situation around and ensure everyone is included and made to feel listened to – whether city-dweller, farmer, citizen, immigrant, or otherwise.
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