Federal popular initiative "Yes to the abolition of compulsory military service"

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The federal popular initiative “Yes to the abolition of compulsory military service” by the Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA) was rejected on September 22, 2013 by 73.2 percent of the voters and all cantons.

The initiative wanted to abolish compulsory military service in Switzerland and convert the Swiss army into a volunteer militia.

history

The GSoA decided to launch the initiative at a general assembly on April 17, 2010. The initiative was submitted on January 5, 2012 with 107,280 signatures.

content

The initiative wanted to change Article 59, Paragraphs 1 to 3 of the Federal Constitution . According to this, every Swiss citizen is obliged to do military service, and anyone who does neither military nor community service must pay a compulsory military service levy.

The initiative provided for the express abolition of compulsory military service, which would make military service voluntary. Community service should be retained, but it should also be voluntary. The compulsory military service levy would have been dropped. Article 58 of the constitution, according to which Switzerland has an army that is basically organized according to the militia principle, has not changed. According to the initiators, the introduction of a professional army should therefore be excluded.

Arguments

Favorable arguments

The GSoA justified its initiative as follows:

  • Today's army is unsuitable: it has too many soldiers (around 200,000) and too few tasks. A mass army did nothing to solve today's problems. Rather, the threats and risks of our time are of an economic, ecological and social nature. Many European countries such as France, Spain or Italy have already lifted compulsory military service.
  • The army is too expensive: it costs 4.5 billion francs in taxpayers' money every year and generates additional costs of four billion francs for the economy due to lost work. These funds could be used, for example, for social services, education, combating climate change or civil peacebuilding.
  • Conscription is an unnecessary compulsion: it encroaches massively on the freedom of young men, is an annoying and unnecessary waste of time; and the duty to obey senseless orders is not compatible with a free society.
  • Conscription is unjust: only around 30 percent of men would do their military service today to the end. In real terms, compulsory service only applies to those who do not know how to avoid it or who do not use them because of the obstacles. The fact that community service lasts one and a half times as long as military service prevents many from doing something useful for society. Women and men should be able to work equally for society.

Negative arguments

The Working Group for an Effective and Peacekeeping Militia Army (AWM) put forward the following arguments against the initiative:

  • The militia army has advantages:
  • The people have spoken out in favor of it in several votes.
  • The militia army makes security a common task, which is typically Swiss: The militia principle can be found in society as a whole.
  • The militia army is supported by the people: an operation against the own population or participation in foreign operations to enforce peace is unthinkable.
  • Conscription allows rapid growth if necessary . Switzerland does not have a mass army: only around 5,000 soldiers are deployed at any one time, which is few in a European comparison.
  • Recent natural and technological disasters have shown that it is sometimes necessary to be able to mobilize many soldiers quickly.
  • Professional armies have difficulty recruiting enough good staff.
  • Compulsory military service allows military personnel to use their civilian skills, and they can bring their military skills into civilian life.
  • The abolition of conscription means:
  • The only realistic alternative to the militia army is a much smaller and much more expensive professional army. Good personnel would not automatically volunteer in the militia.
  • In order to be able to continue to fulfill the tasks of the army, joining NATO would be inevitable, which would give up Swiss neutrality.
  • The initiators want to weaken the army step by step and finally abolish it completely.

Positions

The submission of the initiative was supported by the social democratic and green parties, their young parties, cfd , ATTAC , democratic lawyers , Service Civil International , Partito Comunista Ticinese and Männer.ch .

The Federal Council and the Federal Assembly (National Council: 121 votes against, 56 votes in favor, 6 abstentions; Council of States: 34 votes against, 7 votes in favor) recommended that the initiative be rejected.

Initiative text

I
The Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999 is amended as follows:

Art. 59 Military and community service

1 Nobody can be obliged to do military service.

2 Switzerland does voluntary community service.

3 The Confederation shall issue regulations on the appropriate compensation for loss of earnings for persons who provide service.

4 People who perform service and suffer damage to health or lose their life in the process are entitled to appropriate federal support for themselves or their relatives.

II
The transitional provisions of the Federal Constitution are changed as follows:

Art. 197 no. 8th

8 Transitional provisions to Art. 59 (military and community service)
If federal legislation does not come into force within five years of the acceptance of the abolition of compulsory military service and the introduction of voluntary community service within the meaning of Article 59 paragraphs 1 and 2 by the people and the cantons, shall issue the Federal Council the necessary implementing provisions by ordinance.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article 59 of the Federal Constitution (as of January 1, 2011)
  2. ↑ a b Der Bund : Voluntary militia army instead of conscription , January 5, 2012
  3. ↑ GSoA: Arguments ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gsoa.ch archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 5, 2012
  4. ↑ Pocketcard Militia Army (PDF; 300 kB), AWM, accessed on January 6, 2012
  5. ↑ Message on the popular initiative “Yes to the abolition of compulsory military service” (PDF; 315 kB)