Vancouver Courier - Swiss reject compulsory civic duty, climate tax for super-rich

Final results from across the country's 26 cantons showed voters spurning the initiatives, which had generated significant discussion in the wealthy Alpine nation.

The so-called Civic Duty proposal, which called for requiring every Swiss citizen, regardless of gender, to do national service in the army or in a civilian capacity, was snubbed by a whopping 84 percent of voters nationally.

The "initiative for a future", which called for a new climate tax on big inheritances, was meanwhile rejected by over 78 percent of voters, official results showed.

The Swiss government and parliament had come out against both items, arguing that they would entail huge costs and could threaten the economy.

Recent opinion polls had also indicated the proposals had little chance of passing, but the extent of the rejection in the vote, in which 43 percent of eligible voters took part, still came as a surprise.

Both landed among the worst results in a quarter century among popular votes held every few months under Switzerland's direct democratic system.

- 'True equality' -

The committee behind the Civic Duty initiative had argued that requiring men and women alike to serve the nation would strengthen social cohesion.

The initiative aimed for "true equality", committee head Noemie Roten told AFP before the vote.

She described the current system as discriminatory -- for men, but also for women, who are largely excluded from useful networks and experiences obtained during service.

Opponents of the initiative had denied it would enhance equality, pointing out that women already accounted for the vast majority of unpaid tasks in Swiss society, and insisting it was unfair to require them to do more.

"Women of course continue to have the option to perform military or civilian service if they wish," Defence Minister Martin Pfister told reporters after the vote.

The government had also argued that doubling the number of recruits would far outstrip the needs and would double the costs of Switzerland's current conscription system.

As the results began flooding in, Roten told public broadcaster RTS that she was "proud" to have helped "put fundamental questions on the table".

She pointed out that it often takes time for big societal projects to gain ground in Switzerland, pointing to the first effort to push through women's right to vote, which was rejected by 67 percent of voters in 1959, only to finally pass by nearly 66 percent in 1971.

"The idea of a civic duty is not dead with today's vote. It will continue and I think it will win out in coming decades," she said.

- 'Hold-up' -

The "initiative for a future", put forward by the youth wing of Switzerland's Socialist Party, had meanwhile called for a 50-percent inheritance tax on fortunes above 50 million Swiss francs ($63 million) -- estimated to affect some 2,500 households.

Under the slogan "tax the rich, save the climate", the group calculated that the levy would rake in six billion Swiss francs annually, which could go towards funding an ecological transformation of Switzerland's economy through things like renovating buildings, developing renewable energy and expanding public transportation.

A massive opposition campaign had warned that very wealthy people might leave the country to avoid the tax, weakening the economy.

"This would have been a bad signal to wealthy people wanting to come to Switzerland and settle down in Switzerland," Swiss President and Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told reporters after the results came in.

People inheriting family businesses might also be hurt, critics cautioned.

"The population understood that taking 50 percent of an inheritance would not be a tax, but a hold-up by the state," Johanna Gapany, a parliamentarian with the Liberals, told RTS Sunday.

Clarence Chollet, a parliamentarian with the Greens, meanwhile said the vote was "bad news for climate protection", decrying that the huge means that went into fighting the initiative had created a battle of "David against Goliath".

J.Hughes--VC