Switzerland is set to vote this summer on a proposal aimed at capping the country’s population at 10 million, the latest effort by the nation’s leading right-wing party to restrict immigration.

The Swiss People’s Party (SVP), which holds the most seats in parliament, announced the referendum on Wednesday after gathering enough support through petition signatures.  

The measure, which will be put on the national ballot on June 14, comes just as the population neared 9.1 million, according to the Federal Statistics Office.

The anti-immigration campaign was proposed as officials noted that foreign-born residents now make up about 27 percent of the population.

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The SVP, which has long sought to curb rising migration, said that more than 1 million immigrants from the European Union (EU) came to Switzerland in 2024.

The party called the situation «uncontrolled immigration,» saying that «the majority of the Swiss population suffers» from increased demand on environmental resources and infrastructure.

«Our small country is bursting at the seams,» the party said. «Nature is being paved over. There are ever more traffic jams on the roads, overburdened public transport, overburdened schools, housing shortage and rising rents, massively increasing crime and exploding costs for Swiss taxpayers.»

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A massive crowd waves numerous Swiss flags on January 10, 2026, in Adelboden, Switzerland. (Christophe Pallot/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)

If the measure is enshrined into law, both Swiss citizens and foreign residents must not exceed a total population of 10 million before 2050.

If the population reaches 9.5 million before then, the government may take steps to curb growth by introducing measures on asylum and family reunification, noting that many immigrants — primarily Muslim men from North Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan — enter through asylum applications.

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Major Swiss political parties outside the SVP, including centrist, left-leaning and liberal groups, have reportedly rejected the initiative.

Critics cautioned that the passing of such measure could strain Switzerland’s relations with its European neighbors, as most foreign-born residents hail from other EU countries.

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Flags of the member states of the European Union blow in the wind at dusk in front of the European Parliament on November 27, 2019 in Strasbourg, France. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

In response, the SVP said lawmakers «could not have made it clearer that they don’t care about the concerns of the population, which is increasingly suffering from uncontrolled immigration.»

They also stressed that they do not intend to terminate the «free movement of persons agreement with the EU,» which allows European citizens to move and work freely across borders, and said such cancellation would remain a last resort if the Federal Council fails to limit immigration.

El presidente Donald Trump revocó este jueves un texto que sirve de base para la lucha contra las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero en Estados Unidos.

Se trata de un giro radical al que se oponen científicos y ambientalistas.

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Este cambio de rumbo, que muy probablemente será impugnado ante los tribunales, supone un duro golpe para la acción climática del país, el principal emisor histórico de sustancias contaminantes.

El fin a las restricciones medioambientales

El texto, conocido como “constatación de peligro” (“Endangerment finding”), establecía toda una larga lista de restricciones medioambientales, a partir del hecho de que el cambio climático, causado por la emisión de gases de efecto invernadero, era considerado una amenaza fundamental.

“Esa determinación no tenía ninguna base fáctica, ninguna en absoluto, ni base legal”, dijo Trump al anunciar su decisión en la Casa Blanca.

Esta revocación libera a la industria automovilística de aplicar herramientas estrictas en materia de emisiones de gases.

Trump y el jefe de la agencia de protección ambiental (EPA), Lee Zeldin, pusieron como ejemplo el hecho de que los autos estadounidenses apagan sus motores cada vez que frenan completamente ante un semáforo en rojo, gracias a las reglamentaciones actuales.

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Ese tipo de medidas, para reducir las emisiones, y también para ahorrar energía, eran algo “odiado” por el consumidor, dijo Trump.

Esta decisión ahorrará al pueblo estadounidense 1,3 billones de dólares, según el gobierno republicano.

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El texto fue adoptado inicialmente en 2009 por la EPA, bajo la presidencia del demócrata Barack Obama.

Establece que seis gases de efecto invernadero -incluidos el dióxido de carbono y el metano- son perjudiciales para la salud y, por lo tanto, entran en el ámbito de los contaminantes regulados por la agencia federal.

Gran defensor del petróleo y el carbón, Trump ha dado marcha atrás en materia climática desde su regreso al poder en enero de 2025, multiplicando las medidas a favor de la industria de las energías fósiles.

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Anunciada en julio, su voluntad de derogar el texto de 2009 ha suscitado la indignación de numerosos científicos y organizaciones ecologistas.

“Las pruebas científicas relativas al cambio climático provocado por el hombre y sus consecuencias eran inequívocas en 2009 y, desde entonces, se han vuelto aún más alarmantes y convincentes”, recordaron más de 1000 expertos en una carta pública.

Trump sacó además a Estados Unidos del Acuerdo de París sobre el clima.

Los estadounidenses estarán “menos seguros, menos saludables”, reaccionó el expresidente Obama.

¿Se avecina una larga batalla judicial?

A juicio del gobierno, los gases de efecto invernadero no deben tratarse como contaminantes en el sentido tradicional del término, porque sus efectos sobre la salud humana son indirectos y globales, y minimiza en gran medida el papel de las actividades humanas en el cambio climático.

El asunto podría desembocar en una larga batalla judicial, incluso con la posibilidad de llegar a la Corte Suprema.

Los climatólogos confirmaron que el año 2025 fue el tercero más cálido jamás registrado en la Tierra, y que los efectos del desajuste del clima se hacen sentir a lo largo de Estados Unidos y el resto del mundo.

A pesar de estas manifestaciones tangibles, la lucha contra los gases de efecto invernadero se ha estancado desde hace dos años en el mundo desarrollado por falta de inversiones suficientes en tecnologías bajas en carbono.

(Con información de AFP)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s book tour will take him early next month to New Hampshire, the state that’s traditionally held the nation’s first presidential primary for a century.

The Portsmouth Music Hall announced on Thursday that California’s two-term Democratic governor will present his new book, «Young Man in a Hurry,» on Thursday, at their theater on March 5.

It’s a sure bet that the stop along New Hampshire’s Seacoast will generate more buzz about Newsom’s national ambitions and the likelihood that he’ll launch a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028, in the race to succeed term-limited President Donald Trump.

Newsom’s stature in his own party has soared over the past year, thanks to his very vocal and visual pushback against the president, including his viral social media trolling of Trump and his successful California push to counter the Republican congressional redistricting effort.

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«Newsom has shown an ability to stand up to Trump in a bold and highly effective manner without shying away from core democratic values,» veteran Democratic strategist Joe Caiazzo told Fox News Digital.

Newsom was treated like a VIP as he held meetings and mingled with party delegates during the opening day of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) winter meeting, which was held in Los Angeles in December. And Newsom held meetings with the Democratic Party chairs from New Hampshire and Nevada, another crucial early voting state.

«We had a great discussion on a wide range of issues,» longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital.

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Newsom has acknowledged that he’s mulling a presidential bid, telling CBS News last year he would «seriously consider» following the 2026 midterms and that he’d be «lying» if he said otherwise.

Newsom is one of more than a dozen Democrats viewed as potential 2028 White House contenders. And many of them have been paying visits to New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, which held the first sanctioned Democratic presidential primary in the 2024 election cycle. Newsom stopped in South Carolina last summer.

A New Hampshire-based Democratic strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely shared that he and other activists in the state for months have been receiving fundraising emails on a regular basis from some of the White House hopefuls.

«Every week I receive a dozen,» the strategist said.

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Kathy Sullivan, a former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair and former DNC committee member, told Fox News Digital that «successful candidates in New Hampshire start early here and get to know the activists. They find out what issues are important to people in New Hampshire.»

Sullivan said the early trips to New Hampshire by the potential contenders «show that they’re putting the work in to take the whole process seriously and know they need to do the hard work to win the primary.»

The California governor was last in New Hampshire in July 2024, to support then-President Joe Biden in the days after Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump. Newsom was a top surrogate for Biden, and later for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden as the party’s standard-bearer after Biden dropped his re-election run amid questions about his physical and mental durability.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a top surrogate for then-President Joe Biden, speaks with voters during a stop at a highway rest area in Hooksett, New Hampshire, on July 8, 2024. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News )

Harris, a fellow Californian who is also currently on a book tour, is also mulling a potential 2028 presidential run.

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Among the other Democrats seen as possible presidential candidates are Govs. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Wes Moore of Maryland and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan; Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Chris Murphy of Connecticut; progressive superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another leading progressive; and two moderate Democrats, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former White House chief of staff and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.