Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to cap the country’s population at 10 million, according to early projections from the national broadcaster SRF and the federal government. While final results are pending from several cantons, SRF reports a trend of approximately 55% of participants voting against the measure, while CBS News reports preliminary results showing nearly 53% of voters rejected the proposal. The “sustainability initiative” was championed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which holds the most seats in parliament. The party argued that rapid population growth has strained Switzerland’s infrastructure, housing, social programs, natural resources, and way of life. However, the federal government, Parliament, and the business association EconomieSuisse opposed the measure, warning it would harm the economy, threaten national stability, and hurt prosperity. A successful vote would have required the Swiss government to limit the population to 10 million by 2050. If the population reached 9.5 million before that date, the government would have been forced to restrict asylum, residency permits, and family reunification. Also, exceeding the 10 million threshold would have obliged Switzerland to withdraw from its free movement agreement with the European Union, ending its access to the bloc’s single market. The proposal, which some have dubbed “the Swiss Brexit,” faced opposition from business leaders and critics who feared a loss of crucial access to foreign workers in sectors such as healthcare, tourism, and technology. While the Swiss population has grown by 23% since 2002, rising from 7.3 million to 9.1 million, government figures show that economic output has also increased by about 24% during that period. The SVP has a long history of campaigning on an anti-immigration platform. Supporters of the initiative, such as former diplomatic worker Maria Lalu, expressed a desire for more orderly immigration. Conversely, critics like Social Democrat Helin Genis argued that blaming migrants for issues like rent levels or health insurance premiums leads to division rather than solutions.