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26 September 2020Switzerland will be at the polls tomorrow to decide whether or not to repeal the agreement on the free movement of persons with the European Union.
The supporters of the yes to the referendum argue that the repeal of the agreement would allow the country to control the borders and select the migrants to welcome, while the supporters of the no denounce the risk of plunging the country into recession and denying hundreds of thousands of Swiss citizens the right to live and work throughout Europe.
The referendum proposal came on the initiative of the right-wing Democratic Union of the Center (SVP), whose parliamentary leader, Thomas Aeschi, believes that the abolition of the agreement with the EU would bring benefits to the country, "from being able to select highly skilled migrants with less land speculation, lower property prices and lower rents.
Aeschi said he did not hold onto the loss of trade deals, arguing that the likely only effect would be that "the Swiss will eat less French cheese and the French will eat less Swiss cheese."
Operation Libero: "Confirm the agreement. Serious economic consequences from abolition"
Stefan Manser-Egli, of the Operation Libero group, who campaigned to confirm the agreement with the EU, sounding the alarm on the economic consequences of its abolition, has the opposite opinion .
In fact, the EU is Switzerland's main partner, so much so that trade with Germany alone is higher than those with China and the United States together.
But the government and parliament also called for a vote no, underlining how the abolition of the agreement "would jeopardize Switzerland's stable relations with its main partner" as well as "jobs and prosperity in the face of great economic uncertainty".
According to the Minister of Justice, Karin Keller-Suter, the victory of the yes would create a situation "worse than Brexit".
5 referendum questions
According to the latest polls, about 63% of the electorate would be willing to vote no, compared to 35% in favor of yes.
There are five referendum questions on which voters will be called to express themselves tomorrow: in addition to the agreement with the EU, they will decide whether to buy new fighter planes, introduce family leave and tax deductions for families, and whether to resume wolf hunting .