‘The inheritance tax initiative definitely stirred things up in Switzerland’

Keystone / Christian Beutler

On November 30, big majorities of Swiss voters said no to two people’s initiatives. Corina Schena from the gfs.bern research institute offers some clues why.

Swissinfo: Sunday saw two harsh defeats for two rather utopian-seeming initiatives. Can the right to propose such initiatives sometimes lead to utopias getting definitively buried?

Corina Schena: Initiatives are always a tool for putting issues on the agenda and for launching discussions. But when they fail as clearly as they did today, it raises the question of whether this has actually done more damage to both ideas, inheritance tax and general compulsory service.

Swissinfo: The debate on inheritance tax was polarised, but also intense. Despite their defeat at the ballot box, have the Young Socialists achieved a success by raising the issue?

Corina Schena is a political scientist at the gfs.bern research institute. zvg

C.S.: Yes, the issue has been a topic of discussion in Switzerland. From the initiators’ point of view, this can perhaps be seen as a success. Yet the result is a more significant defeat than ten years ago, when Switzerland last voted on inheritance tax. At that time, the approval rate was at least 29%.

Swissinfo: But there is a difference. While the initiative spoke of an inheritance tax, what was really meant this time was a tax on the rich. Would a broader, perhaps better thought-out inheritance tax have had a better chance of success?

C.S.: The fact that the initiative was so extreme, with a 50% tax rate, certainly didn’t help. For most people, this was simply too high. In 2015, the proposal was for 20% on assets over CHF2 million [$2.48 million]. That was less extreme, but it also stood no chance.

Swissinfo: The desire to make the super-rich pay more tax is in line with an international trend. Switzerland has decided not to go along with this. Why not?

C.S.: During the campaign, much was made of the idea that this tax would primarily affect family businesses. As soon as we talk about taxing family businesses particularly hard in this country, the situation becomes very, very difficult. People traditionally feel closely connected with these companies in Switzerland.

Swissinfo: A few weeks ago, JUSO were involved in a violent demonstration in Bern. Did that damage their political cause?

C.S.: I don’t see any direct connection. It’s always difficult when one of the players attracts negative attention. But it didn’t cause this initiative to fail.

Swissinfo: The support from JUSO’s parent party, the Social Democrats, was rather half-hearted. Is that one reason for the clear failure?

C.S.: If we look at the left-wing camp in general, which also includes the Green Party, it is striking that voters were not unanimous. The reasons for this are still unclear at the moment. The demands were probably too radical even for supporters of the Social Democrats and the Greens.

Swissinfo: But this time, the left wasn’t even able to mobilise its own core voters?

C.S.: Clearly not. The left has the potential to win around a third of the vote in Switzerland; 21% is well below that mark.

Swissinfo: The result in favour of the civic duty initiative is one of the worst in history. How do you interpret that?

C.S.: It is the initiative with the second-lowest approval rating in 25 years, so it’s a historic defeat. I think one of the main reasons for this is that the support committee was very small. It also fell victim to a pincer attack from both the left and right. The left attacked the argument of gender equality, while the right saw the army’s personnel levels and thus Switzerland’s security at risk.

Swissinfo: The civic duty initiative was hardly discussed in depth or widely debated in the run-up to the vote. Apart from the Liberal Greens, no major party was in favour of it. Did the initiative have no chance from the outset?

C.S.: In fact, it’s almost impossible to find majorities in Switzerland when large sections of the political centre are missing. The Liberal Green Party and the Protestant Party are simply too small a group to make an initiative capable of winning a majority.

Swissinfo: What role did women’s willingness to serve their country play? Will that idea ever be capable of winning a majority?

C.S.: It’s hard to say, but after today’s vote, it’s safe to say universal conscription for women in Switzerland remains a non-starter for the foreseeable future.

Swissinfo: What can be said about voter turnout?

C.S.: It’s clear that the inheritance tax initiative drove people to the polls. At 43%, voter turnout wasn’t very high. However, considering that the starting position for both ideas was relatively clear, this is not low. In this respect, the inheritance tax initiative certainly stirred things up.

Edited by Mark Livingston; translated from German by DeepL/dos