Swiss Voters Likely to Reject Neutrality Referendum

Swiss voters are likely to reject a proposal to enshrine the country's neutrality in the constitution, according to a pre-referendum survey commissioned by the public broadcaster SSR and reported by AFP.

The poll, published Friday, showed that 54% of eligible voters oppose the initiative, which aims to enshrine a strict definition of neutrality in the Swiss constitution. The proposal, which would among other things prohibit the country from imposing most economic sanctions, was supported by only 42% of the more than 17,000 respondents in the survey, conducted by the research institute gfs.bern. A further 4% said they did not yet know how they would vote on 27 September.

Another survey, published this week by the Tamedia media group, indicated even stronger opposition to the initiative, with 62% of respondents against it and only 36% in favor. The Swiss civic and political movement Pro Switzerland, which leads the campaign for the initiative's adoption in response to Bern's decision to support the European Union's economic pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, collected enough signatures to trigger a referendum on further entrenching neutrality in the Constitution.

It demands that the Constitution guarantee that Swiss neutrality be "armed and perpetual" and applied "permanently and without exception". In practice, this would limit the country's ability to join military alliances or impose sanctions on states involved in conflicts, unless there is a mandate from the United Nations. At the same time, the initiative would prevent Switzerland from establishing closer ties with NATO and rule out any military alliance except in the event of an attack on Switzerland.

Although neutrality remains a fundamental principle of Swiss policy, the government argues it must retain some room to maneuver, for example to respond to a changing security situation or to impose sanctions. AFP notes that while the Swiss broadly support their neutrality, both the government and parliament rejected the proposal, as did nearly all major political parties. The exception is the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), the country's largest political group, which has been closely associated with the initiative from the outset.

(afp, tasr)