RESULTS: November 30th 2025, Popular Vote

NO 84.10%

Despite polls only 6 weeks ago indicating that 48% of the electorate supported this initiative, when push came to shove, it was a resounding NO. 

Whether or not the vote was rejected because it called to include women in national service, concerns surrounding costs, or because it wanted to expand the remit of civic activities conducted during national service, is not clear. But I have a suspicion it’s because the idea of mandatory national service is generally unpopular, regardless of sex.

Rather embarrassingly, this was the strongest NO vote in Swiss referendum history. Until last weekend, that title was held by the Universal Basic Income Initiative, which was rejected by 76.9% of voters in 2016. 

However, hope dies last, and there was an air of resilience from the initiative committee chair Noémie Roten, stating “It’s never over - the battle continues” [*]. The advocates of the initiative are pleased at least that they managed to bring themes of gender equality, civic responsibility and national security to the public conscience. 

For now, at least, the responsibility of national service rests solely on the shoulders of the male half of the population. 

NO 78.3%

The future is cancelled.

A rejection of 78.3% means not only did this initiative lose, but it also holds the proud place of being the second most rejected initiative in Swiss referendum history, behind the Civic Duty initiative. 

The main arguments against the initiative were fears of an exodus of rich taxpayers and problems for family businesses in coming up with the capital to pay the levy.

While the proponents of the initiative wanted to direct the tax revenue towards issues concerning climate change, the initiative was also grounded in a backdrop of concern for increasing wealth inequality in Switzerland. 

Sustaining the strong economy seems to always be at the forefront of Swiss voter decision-making in matters like this. So it’s a wonder why the proponents of the initiative failed to speak louder about the detrimental economic effects of wealth inequality. 

Monika Rühl from the economiesuisse business federation instead perceived the no vote as an indication of the commitment Swiss people have to “strong family firms”. There was a strong argument made by the NO campaign that this federal inheritance tax would make it harder for family businesses to be successfully passed down and remain competitive from generation to generation. 

This isn’t the first time attempts to redistribute wealth through taxation have failed at the ballot box, with resounding rejections in 2021 and 2015. Despite this, Cédric Wermuth, co-president of the Social Democrats, remains hopeful, stating this particular way of going about it was not popular, but “we’ll come up with a better one”.