Re: Swiss elections and referenda - New Federal Councilor(s) election 7 December

[Former President tack50]

So Ticino (and I guess Italian Swiss in general) are the #populists of Switzerland?

[Former President tack50]

When was the last time the top 4 weren't the SVP, SP, FDP and CVP? (in any order)

Also, would that result give one member of the Federal Council to the Greens over CVP for sure or is that unclear?

[Former President tack50]

It was a very conservative country until very recently. Arguably, the trauma of losing the 1959 referendum on women's suffrage is why other social changes since then have been slow. Parliament is very nervous about passing those sorts of laws out of fear of losing an eventual referendum.

In fairness, even if said referendum had passed 1959 is an extremely late date for women's suffrage to have been legalized.

Why was Switzerland so slow on the issue?

[Former President tack50]

I am surprised the anti immigration referendum is down

One of the big trends lately has beeb anti immigration parties and supporters literally einning in every poll and every election in all of Europe (ok not quite but anti immigration sentiments are way up)

[Former President tack50]

Here are my guesses and you can tell me how wrong I am

Referendum on free trade: Succeeds somewhat narrowly, but not necesarily because of environmentalism but rather on protectionist grounds. Expect this to suddenly overperform in post-industrial and conservative regions of Switzerland and underperform in cities

Electronic Identification Law: Fails very easily, with the left and right united against it (for the right, expect the usual conspiracies about 5G Bill Gates-Soros microchips or whatever). Breaks 70% opposition

Burqa ban: Against the instincts of the political class, this succeeds by a surprisingly large margin (high single digits or more). If there is one common trend in European politics lately is that you never bet against the anti-immigration position winning and that anti-muslim positions are arguably the most popular positions to take. This is also a reason why the far right is winning in the first place literally everywhere in Europe.

[Former President tack50]

Surprised the burka ban is passing only 51-49. You normally expect this kind of question to be the one that very easily wins if the past decade of European politics taught me anything tbh

[Former President tack50]

Surprised the burka ban is passing only 51-49. You normally expect this kind of question to be the one that very easily wins if the past decade of European politics taught me anything tbh

The depressing thing for me is that it probably would have actually failed had it not been for the toxic French debate on "Islam" seeping over the border. Sometimes I wonder if the MCG didn't have the right sort of attitude towards les frouzes 😏

But otherwise... yeah, Switzerland is probably one of the more open minded European countries with regards to immigrants these days. Almost certainly the only one that has actually become more open towards them. Which, well, imagine telling that to someone 20 years ago, but here we are.
.

Any guess as to why Switzerland has become more friendly towards immigration as most of the rest of Europe has taken the opposite direction?