It's so fucking embarrassing to be a human being and watch dumb shit like this and authoritarianism growing around the world.

Well, you have to see it in a bit of a context. Many votes in Switzerland are concluded on a much tighter scale. Sometimes stuff gets accepted or declined by 50.5% or even less. 55% against the initiative is pretty decent, especially when it looked like it would pass for a long time. Me personally I would have liked to see 95% against this crap, but this has never happened on any matter that was voted on, so...

Also, the cities and suburbs, with the supposed "problems of immigration" right in front of their doorstep, all declined the initiative. It was the country side and small communities that aren't even affected by immigration, that voted for it. This shows once again, that fear is a powerful tool to mobilize masses. Thankfully it didn't work this time but we gotta stay alert and fight the narrative of fearmongering every single day.

Source: Me, I'm Swiss.

Basically it's a way to distract from actual political issues, and shift blame to people that have a hard time defending themselves.

It's a very old technique but ususally works very well. The Romans used to execute Christians, and in mediaeval times European leaders would do pogroms (of Jews), burning of Catholics etc. Then 20th century examples like segregation, Nazism and fascists like Oswald Mosely.

Nowadays we have the modern versions in MAGA and Reform and "stop the boats" and whatever this Swiss movement calls itself.

Always condeming "the other" and making sure only to pick on those who can't stand up or really speak for themselves, because that persecution is cheaper and easier than acually solving problems.

Especially if those problems could be solved by worker reforms and progressive tax systems.

I doubt it was an honest goal. It was most likely a post-truth political device for aligbment.

We had a foreign exchange student from Switzerland living with us recently, and I can confirm that the German side of Switzerland thinks the French side as lesser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thbc9Auongc

It means Switzerland is all but surrounded by four EU member states. Germany, Italy, France, and Austria.

The point being every country around them is in the EU and Switzerland is a notable enclave when you look at a map.

Clearly it would be more humane to take out the oldest Swiss person instead of the youngest

You might find Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s story "2BR02B" ("to be or not to be") an interesting read. It's not exactly like your theory, but it's not too far off.

This initiative was a conservative movement.

It would have been used as a cudgel to oppress immigrants or to target the out group.

A fascist law.

What I have seen, it's basically the right wing group of the Swiss government trying to pull a soft 'Brexit', if they have a population cap, essentially it ends free movement, so they would effectively be able to pull out of EU agreements. It's an insane move that I am glad to see has failed.

1940s Europe: 👀

Killing babies in the name of satan AND removing womens' bodily autonomy in one action, call that far-centrism. /j

If the permanent resident population exceeds 9.5 million before 2050, the Federal Council and Parliament will need to take measures, particularly in the areas of asylum and family reunification. The Federal Council would also need to invoke or negotiate exemptions and safeguard clauses in international agreements that contribute to population growth. If the 10-million threshold is exceeded, Switzerland would have to terminate these agreements, including the one with the EU on the free movement of persons after two years. This would also render the other agreements under Bilateral Agreements I null and void. Switzerland’s participation in the EU’s Schengen and Dublin agreements would also be called into question, thereby jeopardising close cooperation in the areas of security and asylum.

Basically it says that once some thresholds of population are surpassed migration laws and agreements start getting more strict until population reduces again.

As for the practicality of it if the referendum would have passed and a law would me made of it it wouldn't "cap" the population per se, it would have banned immigration into the country for as long a Switzerland population is above 10 Million.

A lack of repercussions

Switzerland is not part of the EU. It is well known that they are neutral, I would say it is common knowledge. Are you trying to spread misinformation or just clueless?

Do people on the left not realize how cooked they are?

It's going to get so much worse. Kids have rejected the left every where. Those kids are going to grow up and compound with the adults who already love this stuff.

Votes like this are just the beginning. The only chance they get is if the global right fuck up something. But after Iran, I'm not really sure what's left other than years of global right leaving governments.

It's exactly the same in the UK. The whole Brexit thing has been the unmitigated disaster that it was predicted that it was always going to be. It turns out that if you don't let immigrants come into your country they can't pick your crops for you they can't drive your trucks and they can't work in the hospitals (amazing who would have known).

It's almost as if immigration is useful.

Depends entirely on how the voting results are coming in. It's entirely reasonable to call a result if the sample of votes counted already is a representative sample of the whole.

A counter example would be the recent elections in California. The early results came in from rural red areas for the governors race. So the early results were heavily weighed to the voting trends of those counties rather than the much different high density urban counties.

Also. Article mentions 55% of voters. It never said 55% of the total population. It just also stated independently a 59% total turnout. They wrote it perfectly fine.

Actual results map for anyone interested.

https://abstimmungen.admin.ch/en/details?proposalId=6860

TLDR: There is nothing wrong with the way the article shared percentages or inferring results from a partial count.

That's a moderately high participation rate for Switzerland.

See this list of past votes.

https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/politics/popular-votes.html