SBC Initiative (REJECTED)
YES: 38% / NO: 62%
Individual Taxation (ACCEPTED)
YES: 54% / NO: 46%
Climate Fund Initiative (REJECTED)
YES: 29% / NO: 71%
Cash Initiative (ACCEPTED)
YES: 73% / NO: 27%
SBC Initiative
NO 62%
The fallout
This initiative proposed to cut the annual household radio and television license bill from CHF 365 to CHF 200 a year.
The Federal Council has already agreed to reduce the fee to CHF 300 from 2029 onwards, and those plans will proceed. Meaning it will still need to cut ~17% from the current budget (approximately CHF 270 million, including 900 FTEs).
This is a small victory for us linguistically challenged ausländers, as the survival of Swissinfo (who publish Swiss news in English) has been confirmed.
Individual Taxation
YES 54%
The fallout
This initiative means that married couples will be taxed individually in the future, rather than as a joint entity. Thus bringing an end to the notorious ‘heiratsstrafe’ (marriage penalty) and opening a new chapter of love and romance in Switzerland.
Cantons will now have until 2032 to implement this reform. Those years might represent precious admin time, considering the Swiss Taxation system is notoriously meticulous and now has to onboard approximately 1 million more tax receipts.
I suppose you could still use the all-time-high gold prices as an excuse not to buy that ring?
Climate Fund Initiative
NO 71%
The fallout
The future is cancelled (again). This initiative not only failed across every single one of the 26 cantons, but it was also rejected in urban regions as well.
It proposed to increase government spending to 0.5-1% of GDP in order to reach the 2050 Net Zero goal.
Way back in 2004, Michael Shellenberger & Ted Nordhaus critiqued the (well-intentioned) efforts of the environmentalist movement for separating the environment as a “thing” to be protected from people, rather than intertwined with the human animal in the eclectic tapestry of life on earth.
They thought this type of middle-class hall monitoring would alienate the working classes, and thus doom their cause to political irrelevance.
With repeated green initiatives like this one failing in front of the panel of one of the world’s most conservation-conscious populations, I can’t help but think they might have been onto something.
Cash Initiative
YES 73%
The fallout
The clearest result from Sunday means cash will forever (until another referendum decides otherwise) be guaranteed as per the federal constitution.
This initiative was launched by the Swiss Freedom Movement, a group that in the past has campaigned against mandatory vaccinations and 5G. This political group is relatively small by Western standards, and the fact that they can have this much impact on the national debate and legislation is a testament to this wonderful direct-democracy we’re all lucky enough to share!
Anyway, if you’d like to support this newsletter, then please feel free to send me 500g of salt for my hard work (a joke isn’t a joke if it has to be explained, but for those of you who don’t get it, here’s a hint).
Other political happenings 👀
🍆 The Bears of Bern will keep their penis’s
⚔ Parliament debates whether freedom fighters were the goodies or the baddies
⏰ The demographic countdown on Switzerlands population has begun
🛸 UFOs have been circling around critical Swiss energy infrastructure
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, so thanks for reading and staying up to date!