National Council says no to SRG initiative after marathon debate
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss House of Representatives is not in favour of reducing radio and television licence fees from the current CHF335 ($380) to CHF200 per year in future. It recommends that the popular initiative “200 francs are enough” be rejected.
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The large chamber rejected the initiative launched by right-wing Swiss People’s Party circles on Thursday by 116 votes to 74 with 2 abstentions. Parliamentary members from the People’s Party and part of the centre-right Radical-Liberal Party voted in favour of the popular initiative, known as the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) initiative or halving initiative. The SBC is SWI swissinfo.ch’s parent company.
The Senate must now deal with the matter.
Two motions by minority groups in the Committee also failed to gain a majority, which called for counter-proposals. A People’s Party minority wanted to send the initiative back to the committee with a mandate to draw up an indirect counter-proposal at the legislative level.
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New counter-proposal launched for initiative to halve Swiss licence fee
The key points of this proposal were the demand for greater efficiency, a reduction in the financial burden on households and a restriction of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s activities in entertainment and sport as well as in the online sector. The motion failed in the Senate by 106 votes to 82 with 4 abstentions.
A second minority of the committee from the ranks of the Social Democrats and the Greens, on the other hand, called for a direct counter-proposal. The new constitutional provision would have provided for the financing of radio and television via an independent fund financed by value added tax. The Senate rejected the proposal by 128 votes to 62 with 2 abstentions.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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