Yearbook 2004
Switzerland. The total population in Switzerland is 8,654,633 people in 2020. The Swiss stopped a referendum in September in a proposal to make it easier for foreigners to obtain citizenship. Voters voted no to facilitate young second-generation immigrants to get Swiss passports and to let the third generation get it automatically at birth. The no campaign was run by the xenophobic People’s Party SVP. About one fifth of the population are foreign nationals in Switzerland, who have the most stringent rules in Europe on the matter. In June, Parliament also tightened up immigration laws. This means that citizens from EU and EFTA countries are given priority; People from other countries are allowed to immigrate only if they have the desired professional knowledge in the agricultural, construction, medical or tourism sectors.
Several referendums during the year concerned social and ethical issues. Voters approved research on human fetal stem cells, decided that Swiss women – like the last in Europe – should have the right to statutory parental leave, and voted to allow gay couples to receive the same tax terms and social benefits as married heterosexual couples.
In February, an air traffic controller was responsible for traffic when two aircraft collided over southern Germany in 2002. The man, who was Danish, was stabbed to death in his home in Zurich. Shortly thereafter, a Russian was arrested, whose wife, daughter and son were among the 71 people killed in the plane crash.
The Swiss air traffic controller company Skyguide later assumed responsibility for the crash, after investigators determined that it was caused by incorrect orders from the lone air traffic controller. The investigators criticized Skyguide for both technical problems and the low staffing.
In 1712, a Protestant victory – achieved in the second Battle of Villmergen – put an end to the religious struggles and established that the cities in the midst of an industrial development had supremacy. Switzerland was at that time the continent’s most industrialized country. An industry based on homework, which completely changed the life of the country.
In the 18th century, one popular uprising followed another against the urban oligarchy and for amendments to the constitution. In March 1798, the Old Federation collapsed and the Helvetian Republic was declared a rooted sovereignty of the people. From the Unity Republic to the Federal Constitution of 1848 – which marked the definitive victory of liberalism in Switzerland – the coups, popular uprisings and civil wars followed. The new covenant pact led to the establishment of two legislative assemblies, with the aim of guaranteeing the rights of small Catholic cantons. See act-test-centers.com for vocational training in Switzerland.
The transfer to the state of the exclusive right to collect customs and stamp coins, as well as the unification of measuring and weighing units, created the economic space demanded by the trade and industrial citizenship. The Federal Constitution of 1848 removed the obstacles that slowed the capitalist development of the country.
The nepotism and concentration of capital for the benefit of small groups, created a growing popular opposition to the institutional system. The Federal Constitution of 1874 partially picked up on this dissatisfaction and introduced the referendum as a source of direct democracy.