Thread: Swiss weigh up EU immigration in crucial vote -" Update

Published: 2/8/2009 11:14:42
Swiss weigh up EU immigration in crucial vote
GENEVA, (AFP)


An election poster of the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) against open immigration reads: "Open doors for abuse? NO!" near Lausanne, western Switzerland. Swiss voters go to the polls Sunday to decide whether or not to continue to allow unrestricted immigration from the EU, with the country's ties with its European neighbours hanging in the balance.
Swiss voters go to the polls Sunday to decide whether or not to continue to allow unrestricted immigration from the EU, with the country's ties with its European neighbours hanging in the balance.

Postal voting has already begun on the government's attempt to prolong an accord on free movement of labour -- which also provides some 400,000 Swiss migrants unrestricted access to jobs in the European Union -- and to extend it to the bloc's most recent members, Bulgaria and Romania.

Campaigning has pitted non-member Switzerland's economic interests against traditional popular fears about immigration and the neutral Alpine nation's prized independence.

More than one million of the country's 1.62 million foreign residents come from the EU and western Europe.

Their number has surged by nearly 200,000 since limits on employing EU citizens were gradually lifted from 2002, helping to fuel a Swiss economic boom until last year.

Swiss President and Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz recently warned that a 'no' vote could topple the pile of bilateral accords, including transport, education and agriculture, that underpin an often tetchy relationship with the EU.

Those agreements also ease an estimated one billion Swiss francs a day in economic exchanges with Switzerland's top trade partner, according to official data.

"Our country is opposed to membership, but we recognise that we wouldn't be able to go it alone without ending up in complete isolation, and we couldn't afford that," Merz said.

While the latest move is actively backed by the bulk of the Swiss political, business and social establishment, popular support has been timid.

In the last opinion poll released by Swiss state television on January 28, just 50 percent of those polled supported the motion.

However, 43 percent rejected it and seven percent were undecided, marking a marginal gain for opponents in a month and only a slender advantage for pro-Europeans.

That contrasted with the 67 percent of Swiss voters who approved free movement of labour in a referendum nine years ago and a clear majority when it was last expanded to match the enlarged EU in 2005.

Opponents in the hard-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) - the country's largest political group - appear to have captured the mood of many voters by whipping up fears about Bulgarian and Romanian immigrants.

The SVP's campaign poster depicts ravenous crows pecking at Switzerland, while the party calls Bulgaria and Romania as the "Europe's third world."

"We did favour the prolongation, but we oppose the extension to these two countries, because we don't believe they're ready to integrate in the EU," SVP Vice President Yvan Perrin told Swiss television TSR.

The results of the referendum are expected in the early afternoon as polling stations close at noon (1100 GMT).

© 2009 AFP
08/02/2009 08:05:56 UST


http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article. ... fb.2f1.xml

I like that slogan, it says it all:

"Open doors for abuse? NO!"

February 9, 2009 - 9:18 AM Press give voters credit on EU labour vote
Image caption: The Swiss believe the way forward is by opening its borders (swissinfo)Related stories
08.02.2009
Swiss say yes to EU labour accord 08.02.2009
Decisive vote means "Switzerland has won" Even clearer than Sunday's approval by Swiss voters of a key labour accord with the European Union was the positive mood in the Swiss press the day after.
Nearly 60 per cent of voters supported the continuation of the free movement of people treaty as well as extending it to the EU's newest members, Romania and Bulgaria.

"The people are more predictable when it comes to taking decisions on important business than sceptics of direct democracy give them credit," said the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in its commentary.

"Even in these economically adverse times the Swiss have spoken out in favour of the continuation of the free movement of people accord with its largest trading partner.

"They proved that they can differentiate between the short-term economic crisis and the long-term relationship with the EU... Switzerland's European policy has been legitimised by the people like in no other EU country."

The Bern-based Bund continued on the same track: "The Swiss showed that they have an unflinching feel for the economic interdependence of our country with the EU. The economic crisis requires that one does not bury one's head in the sand but sharpens the focus on the vital importance of open markets for our small country including the free exchange of labour.

It added: "The result is spectacular – and it would be fascinating to see whether any other country in Europe would vote for an opening of the labour market in such trying times."

Benefits
The Basler Zeitung asked why the Swiss were now showing more support for the accord than they did in a similar vote four years ago. The newspaper then proceeded to answer its own question.

"The Swiss obviously recognise – despite complaints about waves of German immigrants and cases of wage dumping – the good results stemming from the accord: they recognise the benefits for hospitals as well as the restaurant and hotel industry and other branches of the economy."

Le Temps in Geneva said the vote made evident that "a majority recognises the importance and closeness of relations between Switzerland and the EU".

It said: "Voters affirmed that this is a convenient solution for the economy while providing them with functional benefits, such as making it easier to work, travel or go to school abroad, to pass through customs and other aspects of daily life."

The Tribune de Genève was also of the opinion that voters chose "the bilateral path as the best way forward in our relationship with Europe", but warned that despite the positive outcome, "EU membership has not moved an inch closer".

Fear of foreigners?
The tabloid Blick said "a considerable majority of Swiss have shown they are not afraid of poor foreigners who, according to the [vote opponents'] propaganda campaign, are lurking on our borders to peck our social security system empty".

The vote was closely followed in neighbouring countries, Germany and Austria.

On its website, Germany's Spiegel published a commentary under the title, "The good Europeans".

The magazine said the Swiss had proven themselves to be reliable Europeans despite their image as isolationists. But Spiegel added that the size of the yes vote did not mean the Swiss would want to join the EU anytime soon. The Swiss want to go their own way in Europe, it said.

The Standard in the Austrian capital, Vienna, said the yes vote could give impetus to the EU membership drive by the Social Democrats and Greens, while Italy's Corriere della Sera reported on the "defeat of the isolationists".

swissinfo, Dale Bechtel


http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/in ... 5000&ty=st

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