Centre-left recaptures lost political ground
The Centre-left has emerged victorious from this weekend’s votes on pension reform and tax breaks.
The Social Democrats and trade unions welcomed the overwhelming rejection of parliament’s plans to cut old-age pension benefits and introduce a package of tax cuts.
Sunday’s ballot-box verdict comes one year after the Social Democrats lost several major nationwide votes.
But Emanuel von Erlach, a political scientist at Bern University, says the rejection of this weekend’s proposals shows that the Centre-left is still a political force to be reckoned with.
“The results show that the Left continues to have strong potential in Switzerland even though it doesn’t have a majority in parliament,” he told swissinfo.
Successful campaign
He said the Centre-left had led a successful campaign against the plans and had managed to mobilise its supporters.
“They convinced voters that reduced spending on pensions and other welfare programmes would hurt everybody,” said von Erlach.
“The Left has more potential than the Right when it comes to topics such as social welfare and defending the status quo,” he added.
But the political scientist warned against reading too much into the outcome and said the party’s success could be short-lived.
According to von Erlach, the Social Democrats were helped by the fact that their opponents were divided.
One of Sunday’s votes did not go the party’s way. The Centre-left supported a proposal to increase Value Added Tax which was resoundingly defeated at the ballot box.
Complex issues
Von Erlach said the Social Democrats had succeeded in taking advantage of the way the votes were presented to the electorate.
“It was not easy for voters to figure out what the tax cuts meant for them. Many people were probably in favour of certain proposals, but were unhappy with the package as a whole and therefore rejected it,” he said.
But he does not expect a major shift in government policy as a result of the votes.
“The cabinet and parliament might become a bit more modest in the way they present their aims in the future. They have to realise that the electorate has a power of veto in the political process and that the Swiss favour compromise.”
Despite the complexity of the subjects put to vote, turnout was significantly higher than usual at 50.3 per cent.
Von Erlach puts this down to the issues at stake and the strong campaigns by both trade unions and the Social Democrats against the country’s powerful business community.
“Everything that was voted on would have had a real impact on people. Voters obviously thought these issues were particularly salient,” he said.
swissinfo, Urs Geiser
Three issues were turned down by voters this weekend:
A package of federal tax cuts amounting to SFr2 billion for families, property owners and shareholders.
A proposal to cut state old-age pension scheme benefits to the tune of SFr925 million per year.
A 1.8% increase in Value Added Tax to shore up state insurance schemes for the disabled and for old-age pensioners.
It is the second time this year that the government and parliament have suffered all-out defeats at the ballot box.
Voter turnout on Sunday was above average at 50.3%.
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