SWITZERLAND-IMMIGRATION PROTEST Swiss hold protest against anti-immigration vote

Record ID: 590331

  • Title: SWITZERLAND-IMMIGRATION PROTEST Swiss hold protest against anti-immigration vote
  • Date: 1st November 2014
  • Summary: PROTESTER HOLDING SIGN SIGN READING "NO TO ECOPOP DEAD-END"
  • Embargoed: 16th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1MDGXMOS97CG0WWAN4L99C9Z7
  • Story Text: Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Bern on Saturday (November 1) to oppose an initiative that aims to control the growth of the Swiss population with a national vote expected to take place at the end of November.
    Organisers said 8,000 people took part in the demonstration, where protesters peacefully gathered in Bern's Federal Square to express their disagreement with the Ecopop initiative, named after the Ecology and Population Association, a Swiss organisation that proposed it.
    President of the anti-Ecopop committee, Rita Schiavi said Switzerland needs foreign workers due to the lack of both low-qualified and highly-qualified workers across the country.
    "The Swiss economy needs foreigners because either low-qualified (foreign) workers do jobs Swiss people don't want to do, or they are a highly-qualified workforce which Switzerland lacks. There aren't enough highly qualified workers in Switzerland, engineers, for instance, doctors," she said.
    If the initiative is implemented, the Swiss population would be kept under nine million people. The country's migratory balance would also have to comply to a rate of 0,2% a year of the permanent population, over a three-year period, allowing 16,000 people to settle each year.
    The move comes a few months after the country voted in favour of a previous initiative limiting the number of people entering Switzerland, which triggered an ongoing renegotiation of the country's bilateral agreements with the European Union.
    Protester Simon Schneider joined the demonstration with his family and said the new initiative would only exacerbate existing problems within the country.
    "I think it's absolutely racist, it's against the migrants, immigration, and it's not the solution for our existing problems. It only creates other problems, yeah. It's bad in every way," Schneider said.
    Alongside the gathering in Bern's Federal Square, an unauthorised demonstration headed by members of anti-fascist and anti-capitalist movements took place. According to the police, about 450 people took part.
    Fifty-eight percent of Swiss voters are opposed to the initiative, according to a poll conducted by Berne-based research institute gfs.bern, while some 35 percent support it.
    The vote will be held on November 30, almost 10 months after Switzerland narrowly backed proposals to reintroduce immigration quotas.
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