Swiss set to vote on limiting immigration

Bern: Switzerland is set to hold a vote on measures designed to limit immigration to stop the population hitting 10 million before 2050, after enough signatures were deposited Wednesday.

Under Switzerland's direct democracy system, citizens can trigger popular votes by collecting 100,000 valid signatures within 18 months.

The hard right Swiss People's Party (SVP) submitted 114,600 signatures to the Federal Chancellery in Bern on Wednesday, collected in half the time.

The SVP is the biggest party in the wealthy Alpine country and is firmly against mass immigration.

"From lack of security to daily traffic jams to rising health insurance premiums, all our problems are linked to uncontrolled mass immigration. There is a solution to this: the Sustainability Initiative," the SVP's website says, referring to its title for the vote.

The initiative proposes to modify the Swiss constitution, stipulating that "the permanent resident population of Switzerland must not exceed 10 million people before the year 2050".

If it exceeds 9.5 million before 2050, the government and parliament "will take measures, in particular regarding asylum and family reunification, with a view to ensuring compliance with the set limit value".

The permanent resident population would include Swiss nationals living in the country and foreigners with either a residence permit valid for at least one year, or staying in the country for at least 12 months.

The permanent population at the end of 2022 was 8.82 million, up from 8.54 million at the end of 2018.