People power - Swiss citizens to vote on ending lockdown | Eastern NC Now

 

 

Swiss voters will go to the polls in June to vote in a nationwide referendum on stripping the government of emergency powers to restrict citizens in the pandemic.  While Switzerland has had a lighter touch in its lockdown than many European countries and was one of the first to reopen schools, citizens still resent the loss of their freedoms.  

 

Switzerland has a national initiative and referendum provision in its Constitution, allowing citizens to put legislation before the voters by petition, which if passed by voter referendum become law.  Lockdown opponents have brought the issue before the people through this mechanism.

 

Polls show that 55% of Swiss citizens are concerned about restrictions on their liberty from the pandemic lockdown, so passage of this referendum is considered likely.

 

'In our opinion, the [government] is taking advantage of the pandemic to introduce more control and less democracy,' Christoph Pfluger, board member of Friends of the Constitution which spearheaded the campaign, told the Financial Times of London.