The government will be relieved voters have backed a plan to reform the pension system.
The reform needed two votes to pass and both did, although one only slightly.
Women will have to work for another year – the retirement age has been pushed up by a year to match the men’s age at 65. That passed by 50.6%.
The other part of the plan was a hike in the VAT rate. Voters were more enthusiastic about that – just over 55% agreed VAT will move from the current 7.7% to 8.1%.
The reforms were backed by the government, parliament and many businesses as an ageing population is putting increasing strain on the system.
But there was a clear divide between the linguistic regions – the reforms were backed strongly by German speaking cantons, but rejected by the French speaking regions.
The country united and rejected an initiative to ban intensive farming. Only the half canton of Basel-City backed it – every other canton threw it out. 62% nationally said no. The interior minister Alain Berset said the vote showed voters judged the dignity of animals is already well respected in Switzerland.
But the government did lose on their plans to change the way a withholding tax is run. Currently – and it will stay this way – a 35% tax is applied on income from financial investments – the idea is to cut down on evasion. The government claims this is holding back international investment. It was rejected by 52%.
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