European Central: Swiss People’s Party Wins Decisive Victory
This month has been busy with elections and the latest European nation to vote is Switzerland. The Swiss People’s Party won 27.9 percent of the vote, 2.3 percent higher than the last election. This gives the party 62 seats in the Swiss Parliament, nine more seats than it won in the 2019 election. However, only 46.6 percent of Swiss citizens voted. This is a slight improvement compared to 45 percent voter turnout in 2019.
The Swiss People’s Party was successful with its campaign which reassured voters they would fight against woke ideology and would fight against extreme population growth. It is estimated that Switzerland could reach 10 million people by 2050 at its current growth rate. The Swiss People’s Party proposes restricting population growth in order to prevent the nation’s population from reaching 10 million before 2050. It would do this by limiting immigration, which it partially blames for a rise in crime. While the Swiss People’s Party made numerous campaign promises, it has won every election since 1999. The party has had the opportunity to tackle these problems beforehand, yet these problems remain unresolved. This may explain why voters do not appear to participate in elections in Switzerland.
Increase In Crime
It will be interesting to see how the party proposes to fight against woke ideology and crime simultaneously considering a Swiss commentator was given a 60-day prison due to calling a journalist a “fat lesbian”. While this is certainly a rude remark that seems to have little motive behind it apart from trying to be offensive, it is questionable if it really deserves a two-month prison sentence. Violent crime in Switzerland increased by 16.6 percent last year in 2022, with reports of serious bodily harm increasing by 17 percent and reports of rape increased by 14.5 percent since 2021. Criminologist, Dirk Baier, points to an increase in using knives as weapons as the motive behind an increase in crime. He also claims that the increase in reports of rape is only because people feel safer reporting the crime to the police than previously, yet does non substantiate this claim. While previously on the decline, the reports of thefts and burglaries have increased for the first time in a decade. Burglaries increased by 14.6 percent in 2022 from 2021 and thefts increased by 17.4 percent in the same period.
Low Voter Turnout
While Switzerland is held in high regard as an idealized notion of what democracy should be, many people may be surprised to discover that the majority of voters do not participate in elections. This is not because the nation makes it too difficult compared to other nations to vote. Instead, part of the problem is that Swiss voters are asked to vote very frequently.
The low voter turnout is also partially motivated by the complicated phrasing of referendum questions. While in theory, it sounds great for the government to allow citizens to decide on important issues, this can be a nightmare, particularly for technical topics that require voters to have enough information to decide how to vote. When the wording of a referendum appears confusing to voters, this may motivate them to not participate. If the government is interested in increasing participation in referendums, it will need to do more to provide information to voters so they feel educated about the topic enough to vote.
Another motivating factor for lower voter turnout is the willingness of the major Swiss political parties to work together. While many elections in Europe are characterized as a battle to prevent other political parties from winning instead of the one a particular voter prefers, the Swiss People’s Party, Christian Democrats, Free Democratic Party, and the Social Democrats are known for their willingness to cooperate with each other. This can potentially cause frustration among voters who feel nothing will change if these four political parties will work together, making voting seem unimportant.
Referendum Types in Switzerland
In Switzerland, there are two types of referendums, the first is the optional referendum. Any Swiss citizen can demand a referendum on a law recently passed by parliament, even if they live abroad. In order to subject a new law to a referendum, 50,000 signatures (that are valid) must be gathered within 100 years after the law has been officially published by the Swiss Parliament. Voters can work together if they would like to collect signatures and they can be members of different political parties. The hard-set rule is that 50,000 valid signatures of Swiss voters must be collected within 100 days. This type of referendum can be held at the federal, cantonal, or communal level. Besides legislation passed by Parliament, an optional referendum can be called when Parliament signs an international treaty or bilateral agreement. One example occurred in 2020 when Swiss voters voted against an initiative that would have ended Switzerland's participation in the EU’s freedom of movement of people.
When the Swiss Parliament desires to amend the national constitution, this automatically requires a mandatory referendum. This means that no signatures are required in order to hold the referendum. Similar to optional referendums, there are also mandatory referendums at the cantonal and communal levels. Last June, Swiss voters approved to include Pillar One and Pillar Two of the OECD/G20 BEPS 2.0 project in a constitutional amendment. These pillars are two new federal taxes for multinational enterprises.
Conclusions
While viewed as an exemplary democracy, Switzerland still has its flaws as well. It struggles with low voter turnout which means the majority of Swiss citizens are not deciding who should represent them in government but are also not participating in the referendums which is a unique opportunity many nations do not give their citizens. Despite being viewed as a model democracy, due to the commitment of the four largest parties to collaborate may leave citizens feeling that their vote does not matter in the end.
