One nation just abandoned joining the European Union

Its supporters like to think of the European Union as an indivisible union bound to rule all of Europe. But Switzerland is saying “Non, no, nein, na.” For 24 years the Swiss government has continuously kept an application alive to join the European Union, despite a referendum otherwise. But now it has finally been abandoned.

Switzerland will remain independent.

European Commission. Brussels, Belgium, 2011 by Thomas Quine on Flickr

In the UK, even supporters of the EU are admitting that wages would go up for ordinary folks, if they were to leave the EU. They also know that the longer they stay in the EU, the more pressure will rise to force them to accept “refugees” from the Middle east.

Switzerland has similar objections to the EU, and so now they will remain out. In 1992 they formally applied to get in, but right away in December of that year, the people of Switzerland voted 50.3-49.7 against it. Support has not improved since.

What has grown is support for the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). Even though in 1995 the Swiss People’s Party was in 4th, and the Swiss voted against restrictions on immigration in 1994 and 2000, the popular opinion has changed. The SVP has been the #1 party since 2003, and had its best result ever (29%, to the socialists’ second place 19%) just last year, driven by the “refugee” crisis.

The referenda have flipped the other way, too. In 2006, a pair of referenda finally passed with 68% of the vote, kicking out illegitimate asylum seekers, and controlling immigration from outside the EU. Then in 2010 they voted to deport criminal aliens, in 2013 they voted to restrict asylum applications further, and in 2014 against “mass immigration.” The only ‘no’ was a rejection of a hard, tiny, NumbersUSA-style cap on immigration.

The Swiss, like Americans, have made it clear. They support immigration, but they want to have control of it, and they want to make sure the people coming to their country support their values. Mass migration from Syria and the Middle-east does not meet those criteria, so they’re permanently removed themselves from the European Union process. They’d have to start all over again if they changed their minds.

And Swiss anti-EU leader Lukas Reimann wishes Britain well in its upcoming election to leave the EU.