Young Radical-Liberals want to launch a Swiss bureaucracy brake initiative

Young Finns want to launch administrative brake initiative Keystone-SDA

The initiative calls for the growth in administrative personnel expenditure to be linked to the median wage growth.

The collection of signatures to force a nationwide vote is to begin in the first quarter of 2026.

Switzerland was once a role model for personal responsibility, federalism and a lean state, according to a press release issued by the Young Liberals on Saturday. However, these strengths are beginning to falter.

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The state apparatus is growing – quietly, steadily, unchecked. It is growing in terms of expenditure, jobs and regulatory density. This development is illustrated by a glance at official publications.

“The development of excessive growth of bureaucracy jeopardises key success factors of the Swiss model, the preservation of which has always been a promise to future generations,” Young Liberals president Jonas Lüthy is quoted as saying. “The state should fulfil its core tasks while at the same time leaving room for the individual to develop economically and socially, thereby ensuring prosperity and quality of life,” he added.

In order to restore the balance between the state and the productive population, an institutional mechanism is needed to ensure that the administration cannot continue to grow unchecked. While the debt brake ensures that revenue and expenditure remain in balance, administrative growth is not directly subject to a balancing instrument.

With high salaries and an increasing number of jobs, the state and its administration are drawing skilled labour away from the private sector, which is exacerbating the shortage of skilled workers and weakening value creation in Switzerland. At the same time, the constant expansion of the administration is leading to growing bureaucracy and additional regulations that are a burden on people and companies.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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