On November 30, big majorities of Swiss voters said no to two people’s initiatives. Corina Schena from the gfs.bern research institute offers some clues why. Swissinfo: Sunday saw two harsh defeats for two rather utopian-seeming initiatives. Can the right to propose such initiatives sometimes lead to utopias getting definitively buried? Corina Schena: Initiatives are always a tool for putting issues on the agenda and for launching discussions. But when they fail as clearly as they did today, it raises the question of whether this has actually done more damage to both ideas, inheritance tax and general compulsory service. Swissinfo: The debate on inheritance tax was polarised, but also intense. Despite their defeat at the ballot box, have the Young Socialists achieved a success by raising the issue? C.S.: Yes, the issue has been a topic of discussion in Switzerland. From the initiators’ point of view, this can perhaps be seen as a success. Yet the result is a more significant defeat ...
