Federal popular initiative “Popular sovereignty instead of public authority propaganda”
The federal popular initiative "popular sovereignty rather than official propaganda" (unofficially - especially media and opponents - even "muzzle initiative" called) is a in the vote on 1 June 2008 by the people and stands rejected Swiss popular initiative which the association Citizens for citizens on the 28th January 2003 was initiated. She asked for a supplement to Article 34 of the Federal Constitution , according to which the Federal Council and the federal administration should be prohibited from expressing their opinion before voting on official documents and campaigns, in particular election advertising and paid spin-doctors . According to the initiators, this constitutional amendment should guarantee that voting and election results can form the free will of those entitled to vote.
occurrence
The Swiss Citizens' Association, founded in 2002, submitted the list of signatures to the Federal Chancellery for preliminary examination on January 10, 2003. This came to the conclusion on January 28, 2003 that the initiative complied with the law, so that the association could start collecting signatures on February 11, 2003. The initiative came about on August 31, 2004 with 106,344 valid signatures.
Attitude of the initiators
The initiative spoke out against partiality on the part of the federal government in future referendums.
The current policy of the federal government to intervene in the formation of opinions via the federal offices commissioned as well as PR and advertising campaigns, in the opinion of the proponents, distorts the possibility of free opinion formation in Switzerland. In contrast to the federal government, the initiators of referendums could hardly spend almost any amount of tax money to make their position known, so there would be no fair competition between the various positions.
Position of the Federal Council and the Federal Assembly
On June 29, 2005, the Federal Council published its dispatch on the initiative. He said that citizens have the right to know the government's position on a vote. In addition, the Federal Council and the federal administration would have to be able to take corrective action if false statements could jeopardize the freedom of opinion. For these reasons, the Federal Council recommends that the people and the cantons reject the initiative.
The two chambers of parliament rejected the initiative on October 5, 2007 with 146 to 48 votes in the National Council and on December 21, 2007 with 38 to 2 votes in the Council of States .
Voting slogans
The Federal Democratic Union , the Swiss People's Party , the Swiss Democrats and the AUNS had passed the yes slogan. The SP , the CVP , the FDP , the Greens , the Green Liberals and other parties as well as the government and parliament had proclaimed the no slogan.
Voting result
The popular initiative came to a vote on June 1, 2008.
Preliminary official final result:
| Canton | Yes | (% Yes) | No | (% No) | Participation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Zurich
|
106,106 | (27.8%) | 275,079 | (72.2%) | 47.0% |
 Bern
|
65,937 | (23.1%) | 219,442 | (76.9%) | 41.3% |
 Lucerne
|
29'215 | (26.2%) | 82,110 | (73.8%) | 46.9% |
 Uri
|
2,743 | (30.3%) | 6,299 | (69.7%) | 36.8% |
 Schwyz
|
17,621 | (40.9%) | 25,511 | (59.1%) | 47.6% |
 Obwalden
|
3,381 | (31.0%) | 7,515 | (69.0%) | 48.5% |
 Nidwalden
|
4,186 | (32.3%) | 8,784 | (67.7%) | 46.1% |
 Glarus
|
2,941 | (31.7%) | 6,341 | (68.3%) | 37.0% |
 train
|
9,400 | (28.0%) | 24,194 | (72.0%) | 48.9% |
 Freiburg
|
14,532 | (20.1%) | 57,851 | (79.9%) | 42.5% |
 Solothurn
|
19,605 | (26.3%) | 54,947 | (73.7%) | 44.9% |
 Basel city
|
12,955 | (22.5%) | 44,640 | (77.5%) | 52.4% |
 Basel-Country
|
19,042 | (24.5%) | 58,635 | (75.5%) | 43.8% |
 Schaffhausen
|
8,693 | (30.8%) | 19,500 | (69.2%) | 63.1% |
 Appenzell Ausserrhoden
|
4,554 | (28.6%) | 11,378 | (71.4%) | 43.7% |
 Appenzell Innerrhoden
|
1,249 | (33.7%) | 2,461 | (66.3%) | 34.7% |
 St. Gallen
|
37,034 | (31.5%) | 80,393 | (68.5%) | 40.3% |
 Grisons
|
11,283 | (23.1%) | 37,502 | (76.9%) | 38.3% |
 Aargau
|
47,739 | (30.8%) | 102,962 | (69.2%) | 40.1% |
 Thurgau
|
17,887 | (32.1%) | 37,852 | (67.9%) | 37.5% |
 Ticino
|
33,808 | (34.2%) | 65,022 | (65.8%) | 50.0% |
 Vaud
|
27,193 | (13.7%) | 170,688 | (83.3%) | 51.1% |
 Valais
|
15,904 | (17.6%) | 74,302 | (82.4%) | 47.2% |
 Neuchâtel
|
8'211 | (16.2%) | 42,511 | (83.8%) | 48.3% |
 Geneva
|
16,983 | (14.3%) | 101,862 | (85.7%) | 52.6% |
 law
|
2,700 | (13.9%) | 16,703 | (86.1%) | 40.0% |
 Swiss Confederation
|
538,882 | (24.8%) | 1,634,284 | (75.2%) | 43.8% |
text
The Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999 is amended as follows:
Art 34 para. 3 (new) and 4 (new)
- With the conclusion of the parliamentary deliberations, the free formation of will and the undistorted casting of votes are guaranteed in particular as follows:
- The Federal Council, the members of the top management of the federal administration and the federal offices abstain from information and propaganda activities. In particular, they abstain from appearing in the media and participating in information and coordination events. This does not apply to a one-off brief notification to the population by the head of the responsible department.
- The federal government refrains from any financing, implementation and support of information campaigns and voting propaganda as well as the production, publication and financing of information and propaganda material. This does not include a factual brochure with explanations from the Federal Council to those entitled to vote. The arguments in favor and against must be given a balanced consideration.
- The voting date is published at least six months in advance.
- The voting templates together with the applicable text are made available free of charge to those entitled to vote.
- The law orders sanctions for violations of political rights within two years.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b admin.ch: Federal Council adopts message on the popular initiative "Popular sovereignty instead of public authority propaganda" (accessed on May 1, 2008)
- ↑ admin.ch: Chronology of the People's Initiative ( Memento of the original from June 13, 2007 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. (Accessed May 1, 2008)
- ↑ admin.ch: Preliminary examination for the popular initiative (accessed on May 1, 2008; PDF; 30 kB)
- ↑ admin.ch: Conception of the popular initiative (accessed on May 1, 2008; PDF; 89 kB)
- ↑ admin.ch: Federal resolution on the popular initiative (accessed on May 1, 2008; PDF; 480 kB)
- ↑ parliament.ch: Final vote of the National Council (accessed on May 1, 2008)
- ↑ parliament.ch: final vote of the Council of States (accessed on May 1, 2008)
- ↑ parlament.ch: Voting slogans for the popular initiative ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Accessed May 1, 2008)
- ↑ Party newspaper SD May 2008 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Template No. 533, preliminary official final results - Swiss Federal Chancellery, June 1, 2008
- ↑ admin.ch: Wording of the popular initiative ( memento of the original from March 18, 2005 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. (Accessed May 1, 2008)
