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SVP calls for a vote on ending Swiss-EU freedom of movement

The right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) has called for a vote on ending the Swiss-EU agreement for free movement of people.

Published: 26 June 2017 10:55 CEST
Updated: 26 June 2017 12:55 CEST
SVP calls for a vote on ending Swiss-EU freedom of movement
File photo of an EU flag: John MacDougall/AFP

Delegates from the party on Saturday gave the green light for a referendum on overturning the agreement.

The initiative will be launched by the end of 2017, the party said in a statement, though there are two possible variants of the vote.

Either it will call simply for the termination of Switzerland's agreement of free movement with the EU, or it will call for immigration to be a national matter – effectively putting an end to any future agreements as well as the current one.

SVP National Councillor Marco Chiesa said party members should “not to afraid to be categorized as 'populist'” and added: “They will try to portray us in a bad light, to scare the population.”

He said that his native region, Italian-speaking Ticino, had suffered from an “emergency in the ruined labour market” due to free movement of people. Tensions have risen in the region between locals and cross-border workers, and in September 2016 an SVP initiative called for companies to give Swiss workers preference over foreigners.

The vote will be planned by the SVP together with anti-immigration body, the Association for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland (AUNS), whose members voted unanimously in May to develop an initiative aimed at ending Swiss-EU free movement.

READ ALSO: Where in Switzerland do foreigners choose to live?

AUNS is backed by many in the SVP, including outspoken former Valais minister Oskar Freysinger, who lost his seat in March in what an opponent hailed as “a defeat for populism and aggression”.

 
The AUNS' move followed a decision by the Swiss government last December not to fully implement the 2014 anti-immigration initiative that was approved by the public in a referendum. Had it been adopted in its original form, that initiative would have contravened the country’s free movement agreement with the EU.

A survey carried out by Le Matin in mid-May showed that only 37 percent of those polled would support an end to free movement. While the vast majority of SVP voters were in favour, supporters of the Socialists, the Greens, the Christian Democrats and the Liberal-Radicals would largely reject the initiative, that survey showed.
    

TRAVEL NEWS

Why a Swiss-EU deal could be bad news for train users in Switzerland

Switzerland’s rail system is connected with that of neighbouring countries, but that may prove to be a problem in the future depending on the outcome of talks between Switzerland and the EU.

Published: 25 April 2024 18:01 CEST
Why a Swiss-EU deal could be bad news for train users in Switzerland

Bern and Brussels are negotiating various bilateral treaties during the current round of bilateral talks. 

One of the topics under discussion is the inter-connected rail network — which sounds like an overall positive development for seamless cross-border travel.

However, Vincent Ducrot, head of national rail company SBB fears that such a deal would be detrimental to Swiss commuters, because it would mean international trains would have priority over Switzerland’s system.

What is it about?

Currently, priority is given to national traffic on Swiss territory.

But a new deal with the EU would mean that European law — and international train traffic — would take precedence.

The problem is that all the train paths in Switzerland are currently occupied, Ducrot said in an interview with Swiss media on Wednesday.

He cited the example of the Geneva-Paris route, on which several European companies would like to bid. But that would mean that SBB would lose out by having to remove an existing train to accommodate a new foreign one.

And there is more: the question of punctuality

The SBB has long had a problem with trains from Germany, as half of them arrive in Switzerland late, disrupting the carefully coordinated Swiss railway timetable.  

“Another huge concern we have is that the level of punctuality of the international system is totally different from ours,” Ducrot said. “Delays therefore risk being imported into Switzerland.”

To ease the chaos, the SBB has to keep special trains on standby to replace delayed ICE trains on the Basel-Zurich route, and passengers travelling from Germany to Zurich often have to transfer onto Swiss trains in Basel.

“Today, if a German train arrives late in Basel, we stop it and send a [Swiss] reserve train instead,” Ducret said.

“But if we can no longer do this in the future, it would mean that the train in question is accumulating delays, but above all that it is putting the SBB system behind schedule.”

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