Greens lodge complaint about vote on women’s retirement age

Campaigners against raising the women's retirement age from 64 to 65. Keystone

The Green Party is filing a complaint against a 2022 vote to raise the retirement age for women, after news emerged this week that federal financial forecasts for the pension system were miscalculated.

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The Greens plan to submit a complaint in one canton in French-speaking Switzerland (Geneva) and one in German-speaking Switzerland (Zurich), the party’s Secretary General Rahel Estermann told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday.

The complaint is being submitted by private individuals on behalf of the Greens. The party says it is prepared to take it all the way to the Federal Court, the country’s highest legal instance.

Estermann thus confirmed the information published in Tamedia newspapers. The party’s final decision was made on Wednesday, she said. The Greens believe there is a good chance that the appeal will be successful.

+ Democratic slip-up: more about the pension miscalcuations

On Tuesday, it emerged that the Federal Social Insurance Office had overestimated pension expenditure from 2019 due to two incorrect formulas in the calculation program. From 2027, the overestimate is to the tune of some CHF500 million ($582 billion). In 2028, the actual expenditure is likely to be CHF1 billion lower. In 2030, the difference will be CHF2 billion and by 2033 it will be CHF4 billion. Previously, a deficit of over CHF7 billion was expected by 2033.

The Swiss Trade Union Federation, the Greens and the women’s section of the Social Democratic Party subsequently questioned the 2022 vote on raising the retirement age for women from 64 to 65. On Tuesday, some of them called for the vote to be repeated.

The proposal at the time was accepted by a wafer-thin majority of voters (50.5%). According to trade unions and left-wing parties, the incorrect forecasts were the main reason why the population voted in favor of raising the retirement age.

+ From 2022: voters back increase in retirement age for women

For their part, the women’s section of the Social Democrats want to discuss the issue of a vote complaint at a meeting on Thursday before making a decision, the group’s co-president Tamara Funiciello told the Keystone-SDA news agency.

Legal experts have given varying assessments of the chances of such appeals.

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