Federal popular initiative "Save our Swiss gold (gold initiative)"

Gold Initiative logo

The federal popular initiative “Save our Swiss Gold (Gold Initiative)” was a Swiss popular initiative launched by politicians from the Swiss People's Party . The initiative required the Swiss National Bank to store a minimum proportion of the currency reserves in gold in Switzerland. The Federal Council and Parliament recommended the initiative to be rejected. The initiative was rejected on November 30, 2014 by the sovereign with 77.3% of the vote and by all the estates . The participation was 48.7%.

Starting position

The initiative was triggered by gold sales by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) since the turn of the millennium. With the entry into force of the new Federal Constitution , the previously legally fixed function of gold as an anchor for monetary policy became obsolete. The National Bank then sold 1,300 tons by the end of March 2005 at prices between 240 and 440 US dollars per troy ounce and later another 250 tons from the original 2,590 tons.

The initiative criticized the fact that the sale of gold at unfavorable prices had caused Switzerland a loss of 30–40 billion francs and called for a minimum share of gold reserves of 20% in the assets of the SNB. The initiative also called for the gold reserves, some of which were stored abroad, to be returned to Switzerland in full. If the initiative had been accepted, the National Bank would have had to invest funds worth around 60 billion francs in gold (around 1,500 tons) in order to increase the share of gold reserves from 7.5% (as of October 2014) to the required 20% .

Initiative text

I
The Federal Constitution is amended as follows:

Art. 99a (new) Gold reserves of the Swiss National Bank
¹ The gold reserves of the Swiss National Bank are not for sale.
² The gold reserves of the Swiss National Bank are to be stored in Switzerland.
³ The Swiss National Bank has to keep a substantial part of its assets in gold. The gold content must not be less than twenty percent.

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

Art. 197 no. 9 ² (new)
9. Transitional provision to Art. 99a (gold reserves of the Swiss National Bank)
¹ A transitional period of two years after the acceptance of Article 99a by the people and the cantons shall apply to the fulfillment of Paragraph 2.
² A transitional period of five years after the acceptance of Article 99a by the people and the cantons shall apply to the fulfillment of paragraph 3.

Arguments

Per

The initiative is an important measure to strengthen the Swiss franc and keep it stable in the long term. According to this view, higher gold reserves will lead to greater stability. In addition, the gold reserves stored abroad may not be available in a crisis situation. The purchase of foreign currencies (mainly euros and US dollars ) worth 470 billion francs represents a high risk in view of a federal budget of 65 billion, especially since these currencies could lose value in a financial crisis. A gold share of 20% of the assets was chosen very moderately in comparison to the 40% prescribed until 1999 and did not hinder the National Bank's ability to act.

Contra

The initiative restricts the SNB's ability to act, as it would make monetary policy measures more difficult, among other things by preventing balance sheet contractions . The current minimum euro exchange rate is at risk, since the National Bank would have to buy gold every time it buys foreign currency. In addition, the National Bank would have to buy gold for a total of around 70 billion francs (1500 tons) over a period of five years, which corresponds to around 11% of the global annual production of around 2700 tons during this period. The National Bank would also be deprived of the opportunity to generate profits from sales of gold. As a result, the federal government and the cantons lost additional income.

International impact

Analysts expected the gold price to increase by ten to fifteen percent if the initiative was adopted. In addition, the Swiss National Bank would have had to significantly enlarge its balance sheet in order to be able to guarantee the exchange rate floor to the euro. The demand for domestic storage could have increased the pressure on the Deutsche Bundesbank to return its gold stored abroad.

Representative polls before voting

According to a representative survey by the research institute gfs.bern , 44% of those questioned answered with “Yes” or “Rather yes” six weeks before the vote, while 39% of those asked answered “No” or “More or less no”. Around 17% of those questioned were still undecided. Two weeks before the vote, 38% of the respondents answered with “Yes” or “Rather yes”, while 47% of the respondents answered “No” or “More or less no”. About 15% of the respondents were undecided.

poll

The initiative was rejected on November 30, 2014 by 77.3 percent of the voters and all cantons.

Yes (0 status)

No (20 ⁶ / ₂ Scores)

Gold Initiative - preliminary official final results

Canton	Yes (%)	No (%)	Participation (%)
Zurich	20.6	79.4	53.7
Bern	21.6	78.4	47.2
Lucerne	24.7	75.3	50.1
Uri	25.9	74.1	41.0
Schwyz	29.3	70.7	51.7
Obwalden	27.8	72.2	49.5
Nidwalden	24.6	75.4	50.6
Glarus	24.6	75.4	40.8
train	20.3	79.9	55.9
Freiburg	21.3	78.7	47.6
Solothurn	23.6	76.4	47.3
Basel city	21.4	78.6	54.5
Basel-Country	21.7	78.3	50.3
Schaffhausen	28.5	71.5	67.5
Appenzell Ausserrhoden	28.5	67.5	51.6
Appenzell Innerrhoden	26.0	74.0	45.1
St. Gallen	27.4	72.6	48.8
Grisons	20.4	79.6	46.3
Aargau	24.0	76.0	49.3
Thurgau	27.2	72.8	46.8
Ticino	33.3	66.7	45.9
Vaud	17.0	83.0	51.8
Valais	21.2	78.8	53.0
Neuchâtel	20.0	80.0	43.9
Geneva	23.5	76.5	51.1
law	19.4	80.6	40.7
Swiss Confederation	22.7	77.3	48.7

Representation in the media

The media coverage was strongly directed against the initiative. The Public and Society Research Institute of the University of Zurich (fög) stated in its voting monitor:

• "Consistent rejection: In almost all media outlets, rejecting voices find more resonance than approving ones."
• "Proponents can make arguments, but they are usually directly contradicted in most articles."
• "In addition, the credibility of the initiators is severely undermined in the media. For example, the proponents as" unknown seducers "(Southeastern Switzerland, November 7th) are accused of a lack of transparency because their campaigns by (unknown) people from abroad or by" American money "(Blick, November 6th). The media also point to the support of a" former US presidential candidate with rather radical views "and" proximity to conspiracy theories "(TA, October 30th)."

See also

• Federal popular initiative "Ending tax privileges for millionaires (abolition of flat-rate taxation)"
• Federal popular initiative "Stop overpopulation - to secure the natural foundations of life"

Web links

• Statements by the Federal Council (voting booklet)
• Federal popular initiative “Save our Swiss gold (Gold Initiative)” on the Federal Chancellery website
• Federal Council Dispatch (PDF) of November 20, 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The gold sales of the SNB - lessons and experiences
2. ↑ ^{a b The} battle for silverware , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , October 7, 2014.
3. ↑ Gold Initiative - What's up? ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The 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.  
4. ↑ Official statement of the European Taxpayers Association (TAE) on the Swiss referendum on the gold initiative
5. ↑ Tagesanzeiger: Does gold initiative promote speculation against the lower limit? , October 30, 2014
6. ↑ Switzerland votes on the National Bank's gold reserves ( memento of October 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), Wirtschaftsblatt, October 25, 2014
7. ↑ Opponents warn of “highly dangerous” gold initiative , Tagesanzeiger, 23 October 2014
8. ↑ Endangered flexibility of the SNB , Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 9, 2014.
9. ↑ Will Switzerland get the gold price going again? ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The 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.  
10. Jump up ↑ Gold Initiative Lucky Bag. from: srf.ch , accessed on October 29, 2014.
11. ↑ End of speculation about the gold initiative at: srf.ch , accessed on November 19, 2014.
12. ↑ Preliminary official final results on admin.ch, accessed on December 6, 2014
13. ↑ (PDF) Voting monitor from November 30, 2014