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In the long term, sorting out a free movement deal with Bern has dropped far down the list of priorities for Brussels.
In a final result on Friday morning, the “leave” side won 51.89% of the vote and the “remain” side 48.11%.
The Swiss foreign ministry immediately announced a helpline had been set up for Swiss citizens and businesses wanting to know what Brexit could mean for them: 0800 247 365 in Switzerland (free) and 0041 800 247 365 from abroad (charge incurred).
“The current regulations regarding Swiss citizens and companies will remain valid for the time being and nothing will change immediately,” the ministry said in a statement on Friday. “There is, however, a high level of demand for information from Swiss citizens in Switzerland and abroad.”
Swiss stocks fell sharply and the franc increased in strength as the vote result reverberated around the markets.
An additional concern for the Swiss cabinet is that it was hoping to reach an agreement with the EU on curbing immigration in the near future – it has a February 2017 deadline – but following the Brexit decision, Switzerland will be the least of Brussels’ worries for several years while Brussels and London negotiate their divorce.
“It’s very bad news,“ Gilbert Casasus, a professor at the University of Fribourg and an expert on European affairs, told the Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures. “This morning I heard a politician from the Labour Party say it was a terrible day for the United Kingdom and a terrible day for Europe. You could add that it’s also a terrible day for Switzerland.”
That said, Casasus thought Switzerland still had room to manoeuvre, “but Switzerland is obviously no longer a priority for the EU whatsoever. If Switzerland’s head negotiator Jacques de Watteville were to knock on the European Commission’s door today, they’d tell him to come back later since they’ve got other things to do than deal with the Swiss dossier”.
Affected ‘politically and economically’
Economics Minister Johann Schneider-Ammann, who holds the rotating Swiss presidency this year, said the result affected Switzerland “directly and indirectly, politically and economically” and relations between Switzerland and Britain needed to find new “foundations”.
Schneider-Ammann said a working group would be following the talks between Britain and the EU and would make recommendations to the cabinet on how to manage future relations between Bern and London.
He added that the Brexit decision had made it harder to find a solution to ongoing discussions with the EU to implement article 121a of the constitution. No progress was expected during the summer, he said.
The economics minister expected the vote to have a negative effect on the Swiss financial sector, from the Swiss franc to extra pressure on exports.
Switzerland ‘marginalised’
Switzerland’s window to Brussels is closing over the short and medium term, according to Gille Grin, director of the Jean Monnet Foundation in Lausanne. “The British vote on Thursday has marginalised Switzerland.”
A window was opening though for Oskar Freysinger from therightwing anti-EU Swiss People’s Party, who saw no need to rush into action. With Britain’s leaving, the EU was weaker and was going to fight for its survival, he believed.
“All of a sudden Switzerland has better cards for negotiating with Brussels,” he reckoned.
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung was less optimistic. “For the EU, the decision could hardly come at a worse time after the euro and refugee crises. … The Swiss will also feel the effect [of the Brexit] as their ongoing negotiations now face a blockade, as Brussels now has very different concerns.” it wrote.
“Thanks to this reclaiming of sovereignty, [Britain] can take back control over immigration and simultaneously make use of economic opportunities in the world outside the EU. Whether such melodic promises from the Brexit supporters prove to be of substance or turn out to be just an illusion remains to be seen. Whatever happens, what must be avoided is that a post-Brexit Britain becomes an introverted country in self-elected isolation.”
The People’s Party said in a statement: “The result, and also the huge discussion during the referendum campaign, has once more shown that in matters affected by the EU, there is a large divide between the political elite and the general public.”
It added: “In Britain, people also see the everyday negative effects of the uncontrolled migration storm and, with that, the pressure on wages and prosperity. The British people have not taken a decision against Europe, but rather against the faulty construction of the EU.“
“A bad day for Europe and Switzerland” was the headline of a statement released by the leftwing Social Democratic Party. Switzerland would be “directly and negatively affected” by the decision of the British people, which will lead to insecurity and instability, it said.
Years of negotiations
With the result in favour of an EU exit, Britain becomes the first major country to decide to leave the bloc, which evolved in the ashes of the Second World War as European leaders sought to build links and avert future hostility. Authorities ranging from the International Monetary Fund to the US Federal Reserve and Bank of England warned a British exit would reverberate through a world economy that is only slowly recovering from the global economic crisis.
The result triggers a new series of negotiations that is expected to last at least two years as Britain and the EU search for a way to separate economies that have become intertwined since Britain joined the bloc on January 1, 1973. Until those talks are completed, Britain will remain a member of the EU.
Viviane Reding, the former European Commissioner for Justice and Consumers, tweeted:
The European Union is the world’s biggest economy and Britain’s most important trading partner, accounting for 45% of exports and 53% of imports.
Swiss reaction in London
For many of the Swiss who live and work in London, it was a brutal awakening on Friday. ‘Day of mourning’, ‘knock-out’, ‘bad dream’ and ‘nightmare’ were among the terms used to describe the decision.
Antoine Sandoz, a jeweller from la Chaux-de-Fond who has lived in London for 15 years, said: “The worst-case scenario is taking shape. Some of my friends confessed to me recently that, like some of the British, they were considering leaving the United Kingdom if Brexit were to become a reality. I was proud to live in Britain and to watch my children grow up here. Now I’m angry and frustrated by the result.”
“I’m angry and nervous,” said Alexandre Bettler, a baker in the Hackney neighbourhood of London who is originally from canton Vaud. “I left Switzerland to get away from closed-mindedness. I thought of Britain as more open and culturally richer, and now here I am in the same environment, not knowing where to turn in order to get away from this attitude of insularity and isolationism.”
For the 50-something Bernese professor Samuel Fankhauser, who teaches at the London School of Economics, the surprise is even greater because “even the Brexiteers didn’t expect to win the bet. As a result, we don’t quite know what to do now”. It’s a bit like the reaction in Switzerland after the anti-immigration vote passed, he said. “You have to try to make the best of an uncomfortable result.” The British vote “isn’t just anti-Brussels; it’s anti-everything,” he said, and this could accelerate a takeover by a bad government.
(Source: Swiss News Agency)
swissinfo.ch