The Swiss will vote on easier naturalization

Thursday 21st November 2024 07:02 AM

Political rights –

The signatures for the democracy initiative, which wants to facilitate naturalization from five years of legal residence, were submitted on Thursday.

Published today at 11:38 a.m.

The text requires that naturalization be possible after five years of legal residence in Switzerland.

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The Swiss will vote on easier naturalization. Action Quatre Quarts submitted 135,000 signatures to the Federal Chancellery on Thursday for its popular initiative “For a modern nationality right (initiative for democracy)”, including 104,603 certified.

Today, Switzerland excludes more than a quarter of the resident population from access to the same political rights. The initiative addresses this demographic deficit “which must be resolved urgently,” indicates Action Quatre Quarts in its press release.

The text requires that naturalization be possible after five years of legal residence in Switzerland, regardless of the establishment authorization. The conditions must be basic knowledge of a national language and the absence of serious criminal acts.

Currently, the law requires at least ten years of residence in Switzerland, including three out of the five years preceding the submission of the application for holders of a C permit. According to a study, Switzerland has the strictest naturalization rules in Europe after Cyprus.

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