Switzerland: Defeat for right wing on immigation referendum

The referendum failed in every one of Switzerlands 26 cantons (federal states) except the canton of Schwyz. The No vote clearly exceeded predictions, which two weeks before the poll had estimated the referendum would lose with 56 percent voting against. In particular, voters in French-speaking Switzerland and in the large cities voted No in great numbers.

Under Blochers demagogic initiative for a democratic naturalisation system, municipalities would have had the final say regarding applications for Swiss nationality, including the right to hold their own local referendums on such requests. This would have paved the way for an entirely arbitrary system; those foreign citizens whose naturalisation applications were rejected in a referendum would have had no possibility of seeking any legal redress.

The SVP was attempting to overturn a 2003 decision by the Federal Supreme Court, which had proscribed referendums concerning naturalisation as unconstitutional and stipulated that referendums rejecting naturalisation appeals had to be justified and legally contestable. The court was reacting to an obviously arbitrary result of a referendum at that time. The municipality of Emmen in the Lucerne canton had accepted all applicants coming from Italy, but had rejected all those from the Balkans.

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