More than half of respondents to an online poll conducted by a Zurich-based media company, Tamedia, said they are against a referendum drive by the far right to stop the free movement of citizens from the European Union.<\/p>\n
The Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) has launched a campaignto end the uncontrolled and disproportionate immigration from the EU, a proposal that will be voted on in a nationwide referendum on May 17th.<\/p>\n
But Tamedias survey of about 11,000 people across Switzerland found that 58 percent of respondents were against SVPs idea, 35 percent approved it, and 7 percent had no opinion.<\/p>\n
Claiming that foreigners take jobs away from the Swiss, the SVP wants to nullify the free-movement accord, which guarantees the right of EU and EFTA (Norway and Iceland) nationals to work and live in Switzerland freely.<\/p>\n
READ MORE:Record number of foreign workers commute to Switzerland from abroad<\/p>\n
But the government argues that workers from the EU\/EFTA member states are needed by the Swiss labour market and do not threaten Swiss jobs.<\/p>\n
The free-movement accord is one of over 100 bilateral agreements that the Swiss signed with Brussels; this and other treaties allow Switzerland to access EUs single market a crucial outlet for the export-reliant Swiss economy.<\/p>\n
More than 30,000 EU\/EFTA nationals moved to Switzerland in 2018 half the record number of 60,957who came in previous years.<\/p>\n
And over 325,000 cross-border workers from Germany, Italy, and France commute to Switzerland each day.<\/p>\n
One of Switzerlands major parties with over 30 percent of seats in the parliament, the SVP has long campaigned to curb the influx of immigrants; it also opposes closer ties between Switzerland and the EU.<\/p>\n
Tensions between the Bern and the Brussels date back to 2014 when Swiss votersbacked another SVP-powered referendum the against mass immigration' initiative which aimed to impose limits on immigration from EU countries and therefore protect the rights, and high incomes, of Swiss workers.<\/p>\n
Aware that implementing the measures restricting EU freedom of movement contained in the referendum text could seriously threaten Swiss access to the European Common Market, the Swiss parliament finally approved a watered-down version of the initiative.<\/p>\n
This involved imposing new rules on unemployment which should limit the impact of foreign workers on the domestic job market.<\/p>\n
But the parliaments decision to pass a lite version of the mass immigration initiative angered the SVP while it failed to fully satisfy Brussels over the issue of access of EU workers to the Swiss job market.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See more here:<\/p>\n
How do the Swiss feel about freedom of movement with the EU? - The Local Switzerland<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than half of respondents to an online poll conducted by a Zurich-based media company, Tamedia, said they are against a referendum drive by the far right to stop the free movement of citizens from the European Union. The Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) has launched a campaignto end the uncontrolled and disproportionate immigration from the EU, a proposal that will be voted on in a nationwide referendum on May 17th. Continue reading