Citizens' initiative Initiative for simplified naturalization likely to be approved

Politicians are likely to return to the issue of simplified naturalization soon. The committee behind the popular initiative "For modern citizenship rights (democracy initiative)" submitted around 105,000 certified signatures on Thursday.

The petition for a referendum was launched by the civil society alliance "Aktion Vierviertel". In the past three months alone, around 50,000 people have signed the initiative, the committee announced. In total, more than 135,000 signatures have been collected. 104,603 certified signatures will now be submitted.

According to the committee, this shows that Switzerland must tackle its democratic deficit. Today, it excludes more than a quarter of the resident population from the same political rights. This is unworthy of a democracy.

The democracy initiative wants to make naturalization easier. It demands that naturalization should be possible after five years of legal residence in Switzerland, regardless of the settlement permit.

SDA