Brussels SHOCK: Switzerland preparing to END EU free movement with Brexit-style referendum

The nationalist Swiss People’s party (SVP) has received the go-ahead to collect signatures for a vote on a constitutional change that would make Swiss politicians solely responsible for immigration policy.

The SVP, led by billionaire businessman Christoph Blocher, is fiercely opposed to the free movement of people but its proposal to ditch the border deal is opposed by Switzerland’s other main parties.

Social Democrat politician Eric Nussbaumer said: “It’s acceptance would be Switzerland’s Brexit.” 

The party now has 18 months to collect 100,000 signatures and the proposal will then be considered by the government and parliament in Bern before being put to a vote.

Patrick Emmenegger, a political scientist at the University of St Gallen, said: “We are finally moving towards a showdown. It’s black or white — either we stay in or out.”

The campaign will bring to a head a long-running debate within Switzerland over its relationship with Brussels.

Switzerland has refused to join the EU but almost a quarter of its eight million population are foreigners and more than 300,000 EU nationals from Germany, France, Italy and Austria and other countries commute across the border to work in the country every day.

Trade is governed by more than 120 bilateral treaties and the agreement on the free movement of people — regarded as a core principle of the EU single market — was enshrined in a package of treaties signed in 1999.

That package included a “guillotine” clause meaning all deals are cancelled if one part is terminated.

With Brexit looming, Switzerland’s relations with the EU are already under review as Brussels is reluctant to agree to any new deals while pressing Bern to unify a swath of bilateral agreements that allow the country single market access.

In 2014, Bern’s relations with the EU were undermined when the Swiss voted in favour of limits and quotas on immigration — apparently in direct violation of the deal on the free movement of people.

But a showdown was avoided when Switzerland pledged to make employers in regions or sectors of high unemployment to notify local job centres of vacancies before looking abroad.