Should Switzerland’s constitution demand gender equality in government? This is the question being considered in Bern. Currently, the constitution only demands an equitable representation of Switzerland’s regions and linguistic groups. This text has a long history and is focused on ensuring cohesion across Switzerland’s diverse regional and linguistic patchwork. Gender has no regional dimension. In […]
Swiss parliamentarians refuse to give up free first class travel
Several years ago Switzerland made international news for its leaders’ use of public transport, something aided by the free first class train passes given to Swiss members of parliament. Last week, Swiss parliamentarians voted to keep their first class train passes, with 154 votes in favour and 28 against. Despite being a vote akin to […]
Switzerland votes this weekend on federal tax and broadcasting fee
On Sunday 4 March 2018, Swiss voters will vote on two federal initiatives. New financial regime 2021 Switzerland’s federal government must periodically seek voter approval to collect taxes. If Sunday’s vote is successful, a constitutional amendment will be made extending the government’s right to tax Swiss residents. Swiss vote results – 4 March 2018 (Le […]
Vaud – vote on divisive dental tax and care plan
On 4 March 2018, voters in Vaud will vote on a plan to provide basic universal dental care funded by a tax on salaries. The initiative entitled: Reimbursement of dental care, Pour le remboursement des soins dentaires in French, claims that 10% of the population avoid the dentist because of the cost. They also claim links […]
Switzerland’s most unhappy political parties unhappy for the same reason
Overall little changed in a year. 36% of the more than 22,000 surveyed in a poll recently published by Vimentis, said they were either satisfied or fairly satisfied with Swiss politics. On the flip side, 45% were dissatisfied or fairly dissatisfied and 19% were non-comital. The year before, 36% said they were either satisfied or […]
Losing faith – religion declines in Switzerland
Statistics for 2016 show that 25% of Switzerland’s residents have no religion. As recently as 1960 the same figure was less than 1%. The percentage with no faith shows significant regional variations. While only 19% of Italian speakers have no religion, 24% in German-speaking Switzerland and 30% in French-speaking Switzerland don’t. Non-believers in Switzerland Infogram […]
Only 4.5% of world lives under full democracy – Switzerland suffers from low participation
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2017 Democracy Index classifies only 19 countries as having fully functioning democracies. 14 were in Europe. Globally, democracy declined in 2017, according to the report. Only 4.5% of the world’s population now lives in a fully functioning democracy. Overall, the ranking shows a decline in the number of fully functioning democracies […]
New poll on vote to axe Swiss broadcast fee suggests rejection
A poll run by the media group Tamedia shows a clear majority in favour of rejecting the initiative, dubbed “No Billag”, which aims to end Switzerland’s broadcasting fee. This poll follows one done in December 2017, which showed a majority in favour of the initiative. In December 57% were either fully or quite in favour […]
Most Swiss against 1.3 billion franc EU payment, according to poll
A poll by Swiss media company Tamedia, suggests a majority of Swiss are against the CHF 1.3 billion payment the Federal Council, Switzerland’s executive, agreed to contribute towards EU payments to EU members in eastern Europe over 10 years. The poll results were reported in 20 Minutes. After agreeing the sum in November last year […]
Swiss courts wrong on minaret ban speech case, rules european court
On 9 January 2018, the European Court of Human Rights decided against a decision by the Federal Tribunal, Switzerland’s highest court, and demanded the Swiss government pay 35,000 euros. The case relates to the publication of a speech leading up to the Swiss vote to ban the construction of minarets in 2009. On 5 November […]
