Five federal bills are brought before the people

The electorate has a lot to decide this Sunday: only at the federal level, there are five proposals.

Christoph Ruckstuhl / New Zealand

The essentials in brief:

• The first national trends in the five federal bills are expected shortly after noon.
• The advance polls suggest a yes to the fighter plane and paternity leave and a no to the limitation initiative. With the hunting law and the increased allowances for children, the starting point is quite open.
• You can follow the live reports on Zurich templates here.

11:00 o’clock

Welcome to our live coverage of Sunday’s voting. It is the first federal election in the conditions of the pandemic. Therefore, the authorities have asked in advance for a vote by letter, if possible, to avoid rushing to the polling places. This call appears to have been successful. In any event, several cities have already reported an unusually high number of mail-in votes this week. However, the five proposals on controversial issues should, in general, mobilize the electorate a little more than on an average voting Sunday.

It is not clear whether the protective measures when counting votes, along with the high number of submissions, will also lead to a delay in results. For the GfS Bern trend and projections, at least the usual Calendar with first trends after noon and first projections at 12:30 pm.:

To the starting position:

Switzerland rarely experiences such loaded voting Sundays. But there are basically two in one this time, after the last voting date of May 17 had to be canceled due to a pandemic. Also in terms of content, it is more than a subordinate voting routine: European politics, family policy, fiscal policy, national defense and wild animals, all thematic areas on which it is discussed with affection and passion. The return of vote-by-mail envelopes in multiple cities also suggests above-average turnout.

The Limitation Initiative

The decision on the restriction initiative, with which the SVP wants to achieve the end of the free movement of people, has the greatest impact. In polls, however, it did not appear that the party could repeat its surprising success of February 2014, when it narrowly pushed its mass immigration initiative against opposition from the other parties. This time, the text of the initiative explicitly calls for the end of the free movement of people with the EU, through negotiation or the termination of the contract. According to SRG trend polls, the majority of the electorate does not seem to want to embark on this adventure, especially as the guillotine clause threatens the loss of new bilateral agreements.

The fighter plane template

Regarding the planning decision for the acquisition of new combat aircraft, a 2014 vote is basically repeated under new conditions. At that time, the acquisition of the Swedish Gripen did not find a majority, but this time people no longer decide on a specific type of aircraft, but on the financial framework for the arms business. It should speak six billion francs, the Federal Council and Parliament demand. And this time you are better with that than with the Gripen template. In any case, in the polls, the group of supporters was larger than that of the majority left-wing opponents.

Hunting law

The vote on the revised Hunting Law, whose main goal is to relax the protection of wolves, promises tension. The cantons should also now be able to allow preventive killings to decimate the population. It is also expected that the Federal Council may classify other previously protected species as “regulable” in the future. Surveys recently did not reveal a trend, which is particularly evident in urban areas. In rural regions, supporters remained the majority. There were also differences between the sexes: women are more critical of the law than men. According to the GfS Bern researchers, a no to this proposal could be an expression of the growing importance of green forces, which are particularly popular with children and women.

Paternity leave

After years of debate, Switzerland is about to introduce paid paternity leave. Today it is the last country in Europe that still does not have paternity or parental leave. It was a popular initiative that finally got things going. The initiators demanded four weeks, then parliament approved a two-week (ten business day) proposal, to be funded through the revenue compensation plan. The costs should be around 230 million francs a year. Now that the referendum against them has been called, the people must decide. And it seems that Parliament’s proposal will follow. Regardless, the advocates’ leadership in SRG’s trend polls was strong.

Children’s prints

The result is still open on increasing the deductions for children for direct federal taxes. With this proposal, the Federal Council was originally concerned with increasing deductions for outside child care to provide incentives for well-qualified parents to work. However, Parliament also increased the general deductions. This part of the proposal resulted in a referendum against him. The main argument of the opponents is that it particularly relieves high-income households. According to polls, the majority of the electorate seems to see it that way. The formation of opinions was not yet sufficiently advanced to allow us to assume the failure of the proposal.