Council of States recommends rejection of neutrality initiative
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss Senate does not want a ban on sanctions at the constitutional level. It rejected the neutrality initiative on Thursday. However, it is in favour of a new constitutional article on neutrality.
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The Senate rejected the popular initiative “Safeguarding Swiss neutrality (neutrality initiative)” submitted by Pro Switzerland and the right-wing Swiss People’s Party by 35 votes to 8 with no abstentions.
The popular initiative calls for both perpetual, armed neutrality and a broad ban on sanctions to be written into the constitution. An exception would be made only for sanctions decided by the UN Security Council.
A strong minority of the parliamentarians in the preliminary consultation committee wanted to include the first concern of the initiators, but not the ban on sanctions. The Senate voted in favour by 27 votes to 15 with one abstention.
The initiative will now go to the House of Representatives.
What is your opinion? Join the debate:
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
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