Switzerland: a historical milestone with potentially devastating repercussions

Abstract

On 30 July 1965 the Federal Chancellery witnessed its first popular initiative against foreign infiltration, which garnered 60,000 signatories and received backing from Zurich's Democratic Party. The referendum sought to reduce the immigrant population by ten per cent. Since then, there have been a number of similar initiatives culminating, on 9 February 2014, in a proposal seeking to limit the enforcement of the Schengen agreement, effectively calling into question the right of EU citizens to circulate freely in Switzerland. Then as now, such actions point to the fact that the threat from outsiders is felt very strongly among EU citizens.