On March 8th Swiss voters—and the cantons—will be asked to decide the fate of cash. On the ballot are a popular initiative, Cash is Freedom, and a direct counter-proposal backed by the federal government and parliament. Both aim to entrench the role of physical money in the constitution, but they go about it in different ways.
The initiative would require the federal government to guarantee the availability of cash across Switzerland and to submit any replacement of the Swiss franc with another currency to approval by both voters and cantons. Its sponsors argue that cash safeguards freedom of choice in payments, remains accessible to those without the means or technology for digital alternatives, and continues to function in crises—helping keep the state and the economy running.
Launched by the Freedom Movement of Switzerland and supported by schweiz-macher.ch, the initiative also seeks to enshrine the Swiss franc as the country’s sole national currency.
The Federal Council and parliament oppose the initiative, while conceding that its concerns resonate with voters. Instead, they propose a narrower constitutional amendment. Two additional sentences would be added to the currency article: one stating explicitly that the Swiss franc is Switzerland’s currency, the other guaranteeing the supply of cash. In the government’s view, this would elevate existing legal provisions to constitutional rank.
According to Karin Keller-Sutter, the counter-proposal is the cleaner option. It relies on established legal language, avoids ambiguity and has proved workable in practice. The initiative, she argues, leaves too much open to interpretation—such as what level of cash supply would be deemed sufficient. The Swiss franc, moreover, already appears in several parts of the constitution, making further explicit protection superfluous.
If both proposals are accepted, voters will face a run-off question, choosing between the initiative and the counter-proposal. Should one secure a majority of the popular vote and the other a majority of the cantonal vote, the outcome will be determined by the combined total in the run-off.
The choice, then, is not between cash and its disappearance, but between two ways of protecting it—and of writing that protection into Switzerland’s constitution.
The Federal Council, National Council (179 versus 17) and Council of States (41 versus 1) are strongly opposed to this initiative.
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