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The Swiss news on Monday is essentially political with comments and analysis on the federal votes of the previous day and a spotlight on the winter parliamentary session.
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The Swiss press on Monday was focused on Sunday’s federal votes. In general, the media highlighted the extent of the defeat for the two popular initiatives. The civic duty initiative was rejected by 84.1% of the voters and the one on inheritance taxation by 78.3%. The cantons unanimously rejected both texts.
According to media analyses, the explanation for the rout is twofold. On the one hand, the Swiss confirm their tendency to be cautious about reforms, especially when the economy or international politics are under pressure. On the other hand, the initiatives presented once again struggled to convince, as they were considered unrealistic, complicated to implement or excessive.
For many media, the Young Social Democrats’ initiative was too poorly put together to convince, with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung even calling it a “brainless” text and Watson calling it “too poorly thought out”. In the left-wing press, the observation is the same but evoked in softer terms. In its commentary, Le Courrier considers for example that the proposal had too much of a utopian bent.
But for the media, Sunday’s very clear results do not mean the end of the issues discussed. In their view, the taxation of large fortunes and duty to society are key themes that go far beyond the framework of Switzerland. Both initiatives raised fundamental questions that persist and which policy will have to tackle again.
The Swiss Abroad did not swim against the current in Sunday’s vote. The analysis of the votes shows that the diaspora voted like the rest of the country by rejecting the two popular initiatives.
The initiative to tax large inheritances more heavily to finance the fight against climate change was curtly rejected by 78.3% of the electorate and all the cantons. Looking at the results of the twelve cantons where the votes of the Swiss Abroad are counted separately, we can see that the Swiss expatriates also clearly rejected the proposal, but in a less clear-cut way, by 66.6% of the votes.
This difference of almost 12 percentage points between the Swiss at home and abroad is “significant”, according to Martina Mousson. The political scientist from the gfs.bern institute sees this as a sign of the typical behaviour of the diaspora, which is more politically left-wing and more urban than the resident population. The vote of the Swiss Abroad is similar to the voting behaviour observed in large Swiss cities.
However, there is no significant difference with regard to the civic duty initiative. The Swiss Abroad overwhelmingly rejected the initiative by 80.7% of the vote, which is not far from the national average of 84.1%. It should be noted that the diaspora was hardly mobilised for these federal referendums with a participation rate of 21%.
On Monday, parliamentarians returned to the Federal Palace in Bern for the winter session, which will be held until December 19. This session will be dominated by financial and budgetary issues, in particular on the highly contested 2027 budget cuts programme. The always sensitive topic of overpopulation is also on the agenda with the debates on the “No to a Switzerland of 10 million!” initiative.
Some of the issues dealt with during this winter are of direct interest to the Swiss Abroad. Parliament will debate a credit of CHF66 million to modernise the IT system that manages the payment of retirement and disability pensions abroad. The focus will also be on planned budget cuts, including a planned reduction in the federal contribution to the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s international offerings, which also include Swissinfo.
As is customary, the election of the new presidents of the two chambers of parliament are the highlight of the first day of the winter session. Pierre-André Page of the Swiss People’s Party from Fribourg has been elected president of the House of Representatives for one year. Aged 65 and a farmer by profession, he has been a member of the parliament since 2015. His political commitment is marked in particular by his fight for the defence of rural values and food sovereignty.
The court of Sion finally acquitted the author of a controversial crossword puzzle on Monday. In it, he defined the Swiss People’s Party as a “racist, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-feminist, anti-environmentalist, anti-poor, nationalist Swiss political party”. A definition that did not please the party, which filed a complaint.
The controversial crossword was published in November 2023 in the Valais daily Le Nouvelliste. Despite a quick apology from the newspaper, the Valais branch of the party filed two criminal complaints against the author and the person responsible for distribution. The highly publicised trial opened last week and the two defendants faced up to 30 days’ suspended fines.
In its verdict, the court found that the two men had merely expressed an opinion, which is protected by freedom of expression. The judge also did not retain the offences of defamation and/or slander. The Valais branch of the Swiss People’s Party has announced that it does not want to appeal this decision.
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