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A voter holds up a ballot paper in Herisau, Switzerland, on June 14 (local time), during a referendum on an initiative backed by the Swiss People's Party (SVP) to cap the country's population at 10 million. / Reuters Yonhap News

Swiss voters have rejected a constitutional amendment that aimed to cap the country's population at 10 million. The outcome suggests that concerns over deepening economic ties with the European Union and external stability outweighed fears regarding the social costs of rising immigration.

The referendum had drawn comparisons to the United Kingdom’s 2016 Brexit vote, leaving businesses unnerved over the potential termination of the free movement of labor with the EU—Switzerland’s largest trading partner.

According to provisional results released on June 14 (local time), approximately 55 percent of voters opposed the population cap, while 45 percent voted in favor. Voter turnout reached 59 percent, significantly higher than the recent Swiss referendum average of 48 percent, reflecting intense public interest in the issue, Reuters reported.

Spearheaded by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), the initiative sought to prevent the Swiss population from exceeding 10 million before 2050. It proposed that if the threshold were breached for two consecutive years, the government would be legally mandated to terminate its agreement on the free movement of persons with the EU. Switzerland’s population currently stands at around 9.1 million, with foreigners accounting for roughly 28 percent. The population is projected to hit the 10-million mark in the early 2040s.

Proponents of the cap, led by the SVP, argued that rapid population growth has triggered adverse side effects, including housing shortages, surging rents, and strained public services. "While the referendum was voted down, our underlying immigration problems remain completely unresolved," said SVP leader Marcel Dettling, pledging to sustain momentum for immigration curbs backed by strong support from rural regions.

Conversely, opponents—including the Swiss government and the business community—warned that imposing such limits would spark severe labor shortages and inflict undeniable economic damage by souring relations with the EU. They emphasized that adopting isolationist policies would be highly perilous amid an already volatile global economic environment.

Meanwhile, some political analysts note that the vote has effectively shattered a long-standing political taboo around explicitly discussing population ceilings. Sibel Arslan, a lawmaker from the Green Party, pointed out that because the debate over population caps has gained institutional legitimacy through this process, similar fractures could re-emerge at any time in the future.

                                                                                                             Lee Jung-eun