The votes have been counted. The Swiss Statistics Office charts below show results by canton and district. To display the percentage results for a canton or district click on it. The charts can be switched from canton to district by clicking on the dropdown menu in the top right of each chart. The initiatives to […]
Helping a few at the expense of many – Swiss vote against penalising marriage
The Christian Democratic People’s party (PDC) is the party behind the initiative: “In Favour of Marriage and Family – Against the Marriage Penalty”, which will be voted on this Sunday 28th February. The initiative’s negative overtones towards same-sex couples, as well as its shortcomings, make it hard to support. However, it might help to ignite […]
The referendum that could force commodity traders to leave Switzerland
Farmers worldwide pre-settle food prices with buyers to avoid the risk of being saddled with their harvest with no one to sell it to. This should remain the case, according to the JUSO (Young Swiss Socialists) party. However, with their initiative: ‘Ban on Food Speculation’, the party aims to ban institutional investors from trading in […]
Swiss vote to ban food speculation. Clever or cuckoo?
Does speculation distort food prices and create hunger? Food shortages are caused by many things, among them, bad weather, wars and supply problems. There is also evidence that speculation amplifies natural price movements, sometimes to a point that limits access to food in poor countries. In a working paper, Stephen Spratt, from the Institute of Development […]
Swiss vote to automatically expel foreign criminals. Sensible or perverse?
In 2010, 52.9% of Swiss voters agreed that foreigners convicted of certain crimes should be deported. Following the vote, in March 2015, Switzerland’s parliament approved laws enacting the measure. The Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP), the vote’s organiser, cried foul, claimed the new laws watered down the original text, and proposed a more rigid formulation that voters […]
Swiss vote: the pros and cons of a new Alpine road tunnel
It is voting season again in Switzerland. On the Sunday 28 February 2016 Swiss citizens get to vote on four proposals. The first is to decide whether to build a second Gotthard road tunnel or not. The current Gotthard road tunnel runs nearly 17km under around one kilometre of Alpine rock from Göschenen in the German-speaking […]
Swiss People’s Party (UDC) leaders quit one after the other
Le Matin. Yesterday, Toni Brunner, president of the Swiss People’s Party (UDC/SVP), announced he would quit as the party’s president on 23 April 2016. Then today the Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick, reported that Christoph Blocher also plans to resign from his post as one of the party’s several vice presidents at the same time as its president. Brunner, who described Blocher […]
Swiss people’s party (UDC) gains extra seat in Swiss cabinet
The suspense is over. After the Swiss people’s party’s (UDC/SVP) success at the recent Federal election many expected the party to get an extra seat in the Swiss Federal council, the seven member body that makes up the Swiss executive. On 9 December 2015 it was announced that the new UDC member to join the […]
Swiss canton of Ticino passes law that bans burka
Le Matin. According to the Swiss newspaper Le Matin, from now on it is forbidden to cover your face in a public space in the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino. Following a successful popular vote to ban face covering in public in the canton in September 2013, the Canton’s government has now approved changes to […]
Could Switzerland language divisions ever divide it?
Christophe Büchi discusses the country’s language divisions and why we should worry about Italian-speaking Ticino. Long time correspondent in French-speaking Switzerland for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the journalist and writer is fascinated by the complex relationship between Switzerland’s French and German speakers. He spoke with Thibaut Kaeser of Echo magazine about Switzerland’s language divisions and […]
