GENEVA — Voters in Switzerland on Sunday narrowly backed a plan to limit immigration, in a blow for the government after it had warned that the measure could harm the Swiss economy and relations with the European Union.
Swiss public television SRF reported that some 50.3 percent of voters backed a proposal by the nationalist People’s Party to introduce quotas for all types of immigrants. About 49.7 percent voted against the plan. The difference was fewer than 30,000 votes, with a turnout of about 56 percent.
The Swiss government will now need to renegotiate treaties on the free movement of workers that it had hammered out with the EU. Until now, citizens from most EU member states could live and work in Switzerland with little formality, while Swiss citizens could do the same in the EU’s 28-nation bloc.
Two years ago Switzerland introduced quotas for immigrants from eight central and eastern European nations, a move that drew heavy criticism from the EU. Ahead of Sunday’s referendum, business groups warned that many of the 80,000 people who moved to Switzerland last year are vital for the country’s economy, and curtailing immigration further could cost Swiss citizens jobs too.
Almost a quarter of the 8 million people in Switzerland are foreigners.