Summary
Swiss voters rejected a $5.6 billion (CHF 5 billion) motorway expansion plan (52.7%) and two proposals to ease eviction rules and tighten subletting controls (53.8% and 51.6%).
Environmental concerns and housing fairness were key to the opposition.
Meanwhile, a healthcare reform to standardize funding for outpatient and inpatient care narrowly passed (53.3%), marking a rare success for health policy changes.
The results highlight public resistance to certain government-backed initiatives.
Voter turnout was 45%.
I wonder why there might be government backed initiatives to give more power to landlords
Oh that’s an easy one. It’s because the state serves the interests of capital.
In switzerland the power is very close to the people. We’re not a country controled by the elite in the shadows. Here the vote was very tight showing that there was genuine concern in the population about overly strong tennant protection.
I don’t want to see trust eroded in a political system that represents the oppinion of the people well.
The political system might work better than most western democracies, but your claim is categorically untrue.
The elite have strong power in the Swiss system
I’m sick of the upper middle classes in Switzerland consistently saying the system is representative of the wider population.
It’s representative of their classes, not those of us who get by below the poverty wage, not those of us stuck in oppressive nursing home setups, not those of us who fall through the cracks of a system which is so focused on stability it often ignores needed reform. They have some of the worst disability rights laws in western europe. They only gave women the right to vote in the 70s (and in parts of the country, the 90s).
It takes a fundamentally fucked up country where in the same village of population 10,000, disabled people can starve to death whilst being unable to afford medical care, while a 5 minute drive away, there is the villa of a billionaire.