Initial projections from Sunday’s referendum on compulsory civic duty for all and on taxing the super-rich indicate that the Swiss have rejected both proposals.
Initial projections from the Leewas poll predicted that both initiatives would suffer a resounding defeat, Swiss press reported.
Voting closed at noon and the first municipalities and cantons then start publishing their results
Polls predicted that the Civic Duty initiative would be rejected with 84 percent and the Inheritance Tax initiative with 78 percent.
The Civic Duty initiative was rejected “more decisively” than expected, with only people from the Green Liberal Party (GLP) and the Evangelical People’s Party (EVP) supporting it, political scientist Corina Schena told 20 Minuten.
READ ALSO: Inheritance tax and civic duty: The big issues at stake in Switzerland on Sunday
“The fact that both left-wing and right-wing parties, such as the Social Democratic Party (SP) and the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), strongly opposed the proposal probably drove the rejection even higher,” she explained.
Advertisement
Regarding the Young Socialists’ (Juso) initiative to tax the inheritance of the super-rich, Schena said the high rejection rate was likely to be a setback as their last inheritance tax initiative was supported by 29 percent of voters.
Such a “clear rejection” risked undermining the future of inheritance tax, she said.
Switzerland voted on Sunday on whether to replace the current men-only military conscription with a compulsory civic duty for men and women alike and on taxing the super-rich to fund the climate fight.
