GENEVA (AP) — Nearly 55% of voters in Switzerland on Sunday rejected an initiative championed by the top right-wing party to cap the rich Alpine country’s population at 10 million, early results showed.
The populist Swiss People's Party, which has the most seats in parliament, has stirred up and fostered anti-migration sentiment over the years, notably about an influx of workers from the neighboring European Union.
Some have dubbed the proposal a “Swiss Brexit” because it could jeopardize Switzerland’s deep ties to the European Union anchored by deals that foster economic growth, cultural ties and cross-border travel, among other things. Switzerland is not one of the EU’s 27 member states, but it is all but surrounded by four of them
Recent polling from the gfs.bern agency suggested that it could be a close contest.
Preliminary results shared by the federal government showed that nearly 55% of voters rejected the proposal, with nationwide turnout almost 59%. Results were still pending from many of Switzerland’s 26 cantons.
The number of people living in Switzerland has soared by nearly one-quarter over the last generation, and foreigners today make up nearly one-third of the population.
Critics say the boom in migration has brought foreign labor and skills to sectors such as healthcare, finance, pharmaceuticals, and technology.
The right-wing party put forward the “sustainability initiative” measure, saying Swiss infrastructure, housing, social programs, natural resources and way of life have been strained by the spike in demographic growth.
The federal government, Parliament and EconomieSuisse, a major business association, oppose the idea.
In Geneva, Switzerland's second-largest city and a hub of U.N. institutions and humanitarian groups, early results showed about two-thirds of voters in the region opposed the measure.
Maria Lalu, a former diplomatic mission worker from the Philippines who arrived in Switzerland in the early 1980s, said she supported the proposal. “I have nothing against immigration. I also am a stranger,” she said after casting her vote, adding that she wants immigration to be more orderly.
Schoolteacher Natascha Robert said she voted against the bid, expressing concern that approval could hurt Switzerland's relationship with the EU. She also said Switzerland's growing diversity is an asset.
“I think people always have something to bring us," she said outside a polling station in the central Paquis neighborhood, emphasizing that she was born in Switzerland to two Swiss parents. “Does that mean that we have more foreigners, I feel less Swiss? Really, not.”
Swiss democracy gives voters a direct say in policymaking through referendums typically held four times a year. Most ballots are cast through the mail, and in-person voting ended at noon local time on Sunday.
A “yes” vote would require the Swiss government to take action to cap the population by 2050.
If the population reaches 9.5 million before then, the government would be forced to restrict asylum, family reunification and residency permits, and may have to scrap Switzerland’s EU deal on the free movement of people.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has reported that Switzerland had a foreign-born population of 32% as of 2024, behind only Luxembourg and Australia among the group's 38 member countries.
International migration has long been a sensitive issue in Europe, as nations grapple with an aging population and increasing anti-foreigner sentiment. While that sentiment in other European countries centers on migrants from the developing world, most foreigners in Switzerland are Europeans.
Since Switzerland and the EU eased restrictions on citizens living and working across their borders in 2002, the Swiss population has grown by 23%, to 9.1 million as of the end of last year. Economic output has also increased, up 24% over the same period, government data show.
Swiss voters have repeatedly tackled the immigration issue over the last half-century. Only one such referendum — “Against mass immigration” in 2014 — narrowly passed, after campaigners stoked fears about overpopulation and rising numbers of Muslims in the country.
While many countries have limits on immigration, none has ever voted to limit its population, Swiss experts say.
People approach the polling station near the train station on this election Sunday, when voters are deciding on the "No to 10-Million Switzerland" and the Civil Protection Act, on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Bern. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
Members of the Federal Parliament and other representatives of civic organizations, celebrate during a get together of a cross-party alliance against the SVP's popular initiative "No 10-Million Switzerland" which the people and the cantons voted on this election Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Bern, Switzerland. (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP)
A poster reading "Isolate ourselves from Europe? Certainly not now! - No to the SVP/UDC Chaos initiative" featuring images of President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, urging people to vote against the Swiss People's Party (SVP) referendum titled "No to a Switzerland with 10 million inhabitants" photographed in Lausanne, May 27, 2026. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump marked his 80th birthday on Sunday by hailing an initial agreement to end the war in Iran and staging a once unfathomable cage-fighting show on the storied South Lawn of the White House.
Trump had been touting the emerging deal for weeks, and last-minute strikes in the conflict had threatened to overshadow the ostentatious UFC mixed martial arts extravaganza — where combatants sealed inside a wire-mesh octagon try to punch, kick, chop and pummel each other into submission.
Hours ahead of the fight starting, however, the president said an agreement to end the conflict “is now complete." He declared that the U.S. will end its blockade of Iran, and that Strait of Hormuz would reopen, potentially easing high oil prices and skittish global markets. But the crucial details are still to be negotiated.
Word of the deal was a prefight present for Trump but his focus quickly shifted to UFC. Top administration officials and Republican leaders attended, including FBI Director Kash Patel and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Polish President Karol Nawrocki was spotted heading into the White House for it, too.
Trump and White walked together from the Oval Office to the Blue Room Balcony to survey the Octagon and stood for the National Anthem as fighter jets thundered overhead. The crowd chanted “USA! USA!”
More than 4,000 spectators were invited to a temporary arena under “ The Claw,” a spaceship-like metal arch fitted with lighting, sound equipment and large screens. Thousands more watched on big screens from the nearby Ellipse.
“This event is a one of one event, incredible event. I love it,” said UFC chief Dana White, a close friend of the president, during a Friday night hype session at the Lincoln Memorial where pairs of fighters shoved and scuffled for the cameras under the stoic gaze of Honest Abe’s marble likeness.
The president has sought to tie Sunday’s event to larger, months-long celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But it is much more geared toward feting himself, so much so that the G7 summit for leaders of industrialized nations pushed back their get-together so that the president could attend his cage-match party and then fly straight to France for the meetings.
The weekend hasn’t been all smiles for the president, meanwhile. Crews spent part of the weekend prying the president’s name off the Kennedy Center about a mile from Trump’s birthday bash after a judge ruled naming it after Trump had gone too far.
And, before the fight began, UFC Middleweight champion Sean Strickland — an outspoken critic of Israel — was escorted out of the Ellipse by a crowd of law enforcement officers, for reasons that weren't immediately clear.
Once a vocal Trump supporter, Strickland recently said on social media that he was not invited to participate in Sunday’s event because of his views on Israel — something UFC denied.
Forecasts also predicted a strong chance of thunderstorms and high winds, which delayed the event's start briefly.
“I’m sick and tired of hearing about the weather,” White declared on Friday, before conceding that he'll prefer to hold future UFC events inside arenas only.
When Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden, turned 80 in November 2022, he celebrated with a private family brunch at the White House, laying bare just how much and how quickly things have changed.
Asked about the contrast, White House spokesperson Allison Schuster said that the fight “will be one of the most entertaining nights in American history" and said that the timing was appropriate.
“Having this spectacle take place at the people’s house on Flag Day during our nations’ semiquincentennial anniversary is a fitting tribute,” Schuster said in a statement.
When he turned 80, Biden was the oldest president in U.S. history, and was months away from launching a reelection bid that he would ultimately abandon after a disastrous debate against Trump and mutiny among Democrats concerned he was too old to handle a second term.
Trump has now supplanted Biden as the oldest person to be elected U.S. president. He’s constitutionally barred from running again, yet constantly toys with the notion publicly. That’s despite polls showing rising public skepticism about Trump’s mental and physical health — recalling concerns Biden faced as he turned 80.
A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in April found that less than half of U.S. adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively as president.
The White House countered with a lengthy statement from Trump's former White House physician, Texas Republican Rep. Ronny Jackson, saying Trump's “stamina, focus, and strength are exceptional and on display every day. Claims to the contrary are pure fiction.” Jackson added that polling concerns were “being propagated by the same biased, liberal, Trump-hating press that completely ignored the absolute cognitive and physical disaster that was President Biden.”
The UFC is an apt metaphor for Trump's pugilistic political style. He is as big a fan of cage-match-style politics as he is of cage-fighting itself.
But Trump has also long been a master of political misdirection, purposely presenting people with something other than his presidency to focus on when things aren’t going well.
With the war in Iran grinding on before Sunday's announcement — even during weeks of assurances from Trump that its end is nigh — gas prices skyrocketed. Renewed concerns about inflation and plummeting job approval ratings for Trump helped ensure that a White House birthday party unlike anything America has ever seen is definitely a diversion.
“This is all distraction,” said Mike Fontaine, a classics professor at Cornell University, who likened it to the gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome, when combatants brutalized each other for public entertainment meant to bolster rulers’ popularity and quell potential unrest.
“This is a classic strategy," Fontaine said. “In ancient Rome, the phrase would be, ‘bread and circuses.’”
Trump says the UFC is paying for the event and while its full costs haven't been divulged, the National Park Service said in a court filing that $60-plus million and tens of thousands of hours of labor went into it, while seven government agencies have “allocated significant resources and manpower.”
UFC also announced that it was adding as an official partner for the event World Liberty Financial to create a special $250,000 athlete bonus pool for Sunday night’s winners. The cryptocurrency company is co-owned by the Trump family, founded with the president’s special diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff and run by his son, Zach.
The arrangement further blurs lines between the Trump family's financial interests and the events and construction projects the president has prioritized and used government resources to pull off.
Still, Fontaine said that when it comes to a personal flair for pageantry, the president’s second-term tendency to lean into “hardcore masculinity and brute fighting” is marrying the UFC's blood sport with Trump's trademark humor and enduring sense of showmanship.
“President Trump has a once-in-a-generation talent for this stuff,” he said.
Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.
The arena is seen on the South Lawn of the White House from the Washington Monument ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fight on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
President Donald Trump and Dana White, UFC president and CEO, arrive for UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Light shine at the UFC Freedom 250 on the South Lawn of the White House, Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
People are seen on the roof of the White House prior to the UFC Freedom 250 fights taking place on the South Lawn in Washington, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
Army soldiers hold a grappling demonstration during the UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest on The Ellipse ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fight on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Pool Photo via AP)
The arena is seen on the South Lawn of the White House from the Washington Monument ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fight on Sunday, June 14, 2026, in Washington. (Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
Diego Lopes participates in the ceremonial UFC Freedom 250 weigh-ins on the Ellipse, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington, ahead of Sunday's fight on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump is pictured during an event where he signs a proclamation about the fishing industry, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Security at the White House looks through a pair of binoculars during the UFC Fan Fest on the White House Ellipse ahead of Sunday's fight on the South Lawn, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
UFC fighter Alex Pereira attends a UFC news conference at the Lincoln Memorial, ahead of Sunday's fight on the South Lawn of the White House, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
Kai Trump, left, and UFC President and CEO Dana White looks on before a Motorsports athlete and stunt performer does a motorcycle jump ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
Motorsports athletes and stunt performers do a motorcycle jump ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
A motor sports athlete and stunt performer does a motorcycle jump ahead of the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
The arena for the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House is photographed Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
