Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
E-voting continues to expand slowly in Switzerland. The reality is that e-voting services that already exist are only used to a limited extent.
The 36 new F-35 fighter jets that the government wants to buy from the US continues to be a major talking point. Do we need a new referendum to decide? Politicians will have to provide the answers.
Enjoy the read!
Delegates discussing the world’s first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution failed to reach consensus in Geneva, diplomats said on Friday. This is a double defeat for Switzerland.
The differences between the ambitious states – including Switzerland – and the oil-producing nations were too great, Swiss public radio, SRF, reports.
On one side were over 100 countries with ambitious goals calling for a restriction on plastic production. These included Switzerland, the EU and dozens of countries in South America, Africa, and Asia. They wanted to phase out single-use plastics such as cups and cutlery.
On the other side were the oil-producing nations that supply the raw material for the plastic, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia.
The final draft text no longer included any global targets, only national ones.
Ahead of the last round of negotiations, Environment Minister Albert Rösti declared that a failure of the plastic pollution negotiations would be unacceptable. But that is exactly what has happened.
This is not only a disappointment for Switzerland’s ambitions. It is also a defeat for multilateralism and International Geneva.
Should a man work as a midwife? Yes, it’s possible. The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper has a portrait of a man who wants to become one.
Luca Grieco is 27 years old. He didn’t make it through medical school. “A dream was shattered,” he says. But his fascination for the profession remained.
He then came across a Master’s degree programme in midwifery. He has been studying for two semesters, and has three years left to go.
Of the 3,520 members of the Swiss Midwives Association, seven are male. “Most of the stupid comments come from men,” Luca Griego told Tages-Anzeiger. “I don’t have to study for four years to see naked women.”
According to the newspaper, men as midwives are only a new phenomenon in German-speaking Switzerland. “It’s been common in French-speaking Switzerland for a long time, probably due to its proximity to France,” says Petra Graf, president of the Swiss Midwives Association. There, male midwives have been around for a long time, as in Germany, Spain and England.
And just look at the situation for gynaecologists, says Luca Griego: “Nobody says anything.”
E-voting is expanding in Switzerland. Now the canton that is driving the technology forward has published new figures.
E-voting is by far the most advanced in canton St Gallen in eastern Switzerland. A trial began in 2023 in five of the canton’s 75 municipalities. The number has grown since then. Most recently, 58 municipalities were involved, and from September there will be 66.
The trials are limited to 30% of the voting population in all cantons. This does not apply to the Swiss Abroad. Around 12,000 are registered in canton St Gallen.
In the St. Galler Tagblatt newspaper, the cantonal chancellery provides figures on usage to date. The percentage of registrations varies between 1.3-15% of the voting population.
In the large municipality of Rapperswil-Jona, which has been using e-voting since the start of the trial in June 2023, the percentage has risen from 3% back then to 6% today. In the city of St Gallen, which is currently introducing e-voting, 1.66% of voters have registered.
Swiss Post launched another public endurance test for the Swiss e-voting system at the end of July. Computer scientists from Switzerland and abroad can try to identify weaknesses. Rewards of up to CHF250,000 ($310,000) are up for grabs.
After the recent fixed-price debacle surrounding the purchase of 36 F-35 fighter jets from the United States, the question arises: should Switzerland organise a new referendum? Swiss media are looking for answers.
“Will the people have their say after all?” asks SRF in an analysis of the additional costs that Switzerland will incur on top of the planned CHF6 billion to buy the F-35s.
The Federal Council expects additional costs of up to CHF1.3 billion. If additional funds are required for this, then another vote must be held, Mattea Meyer, co-president of the Social Democratic Party, told SRF: “It is absolutely clear to us that a second vote is needed.”
Radical-Liberal Heinz Theiler disagrees: “From a purely legal point of view, we have clarified that it is possible without a vote.” Additional financing could be managed via the regular armaments programme.
SRF parliamentary editor Andy Müller notes: “Whether people vote again on the financing of the fighter jet is a question of political will. Parliament would have to make an additional loan eligible for a referendum.”
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), for its part, believes there is hardly any scope for a referendum on the fighter jet procurement narrowly decided in 2020. It also writes: “The options of a supplementary credit and fewer compensation transactions would be sensitive in terms of democratic policy from a certain extent.”
The vote was for a planning decision. “It is in the nature of planning that it can never be legally binding,” says NZZ, citing an expert on state policy.
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