Swiss voters on Sunday firmly rejected a proposal to write a strictly defined form of neutrality into the constitution, a change that would have blocked the country from imposing economic sanctions or cooperating with NATO, Hiru News reported.
More than two-thirds of voters opposed the initiative, according to projections by state broadcaster SRF. Having also failed to win a majority of Switzerland’s cantonal constituencies — a separate requirement for constitutional change — the proposal was effectively defeated.
What the initiative would have done
The campaign sought a constitutional rule stipulating that Switzerland could not join or cooperate with any military or defence alliance unless it was attacked, and that it refrain from joining sanctions unless those were approved by the United Nations.
Swiss neutrality has been internationally recognised since the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815, but how any government implements it has never been spelled out in law.
The campaign
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) argued that Switzerland’s traditional position had been eroded after Bern imposed sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Its campaign funded posters nationwide carrying white peace doves and the slogan “No war, yes to neutrality.”
Most other parties and the Swiss government opposed the measure. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said it would harm national security and prevent Switzerland from training with NATO.
“Switzerland has not had a war for 200 years because it is permanently armed and neutral,” said Christoph Blocher, the billionaire businessman who backs the SVP, ahead of the vote. He told Reuters that neutrality had been followed less and less in recent years, and that Russia now regarded Switzerland as a party to the conflict because of the sanctions.
Reaction
The Green Party and the smaller Evangelical People’s Party expressed relief. “Voters understood what the SVP wanted: it wanted Switzerland to isolate itself internationally and shirk its responsibilities when international law is being trampled on,” said Green Party lawmaker Sibel Arslan.
The SVP accepted the result and said it had no plans for further action for now. “I’m of course not pleased with the result,” said SVP lawmaker Lukas Reimann, who added that the commitment to neutrality expressed by all sides during the campaign was encouraging. If the government were to stray from neutrality by adopting tougher sanctions, he said, the party would need to become active again.
Fabio Wasserfallen, professor of European politics at the University of Bern, had said before the vote that Swiss voters “like neutrality, but they approve of how the government is implementing it at present,” and were generally in favour of the sanctions on Russia.
