Switzerland’s right-wing party recently asked voters to cap the country’s population at 10 million. They said “no” — and I mean this literally: the Swiss put all such things to a nationwide vote. There is much here for the Right to learn and, as usual, more to forget. The autopsy of this restrictionist miscarriage sheds some light on the immigration struggle — but much more importantly, on how readily the populist Right can botch it, even in its best and most sophisticated forms.
Switzerland is an ideal laboratory for eccentric policy propositions: The electorate is uber-educated, efficient, morally flexible, and subjected to constant pulse checks via referendum. Its “right-wing” party, the SVP, has topped every election for 25 years and fields the most polite nativists you will ever meet. Still, the proposition went down by a 55% majority.
