Access to EU’s single market is key especially since Swiss products have a sizeable market presence.

According to a survey, Swiss voters prefer closer ties to the EU and its single market than adopt immigration curbs that could jeopardise these two objectives.

Last month with the Swiss parliament adopting a system which provides unemployed Swiss youth a preference over EU nationals for employment, the issue has raised a political storm in Switzerland’s relations with the European Union, which incidentally is its biggest trading partner.

In a poll of 1,000 people conducted by OpinionPlus for Swedish newspaper SonntagsBlick, 47% voted for immigration curbs. In a 2014 poll 43% had voted for it.

However, the poll also showed that 52% were opposed to ending the free movement of people since it underpins Switzerland’s access to EU’s single market.

If push went to shove and if Swiss nationals were forced to choose between access to the single market or immigration curbs, 54% chose to back EU’s immigration policy with 41% preferring immigration quotas. 5% of those polled remained uncertain.

The Swiss are eagerly eyeing what Brexit will mean for Britain, as it charts its own course while negotiating the terms of its divorce.

Under the Swiss system of direct democracy, how voters view the issue remains very important.

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Tags: Brexit, Britain, direct democracy, EU, EU nationals, European Union, free movement of people, immigration curbs, migrants, migration, opinion poll, OpinionPlus, poll, single market, single market bloc, SonntagsBlick, Swedish, Swiss, Switzerland