Paraphrasing the news from .ch (source), Switzerland’s third referendum on this topic approved extended the covid restrictions until 2024 (!). Mid-2024 actually.
Aller guten Dinge sind drei: 60,2% im Juni 2021, 62% im November 2021 und nun, in der dritten Abstimmung zum Covid-19-Gesetz, stimmten 61,9% zu.
The news report helpfully identifies where all the bad thinkers are located:
Schwyz ( 54.3% No )
Appenzell Innerrhoden ( 51.5% No )
Obwalden ( 52.6% No )
The good thinkers are clearly concentrated in the canton of Basel-Stadt with 72% in favor. Perhaps this post was a better fit for the most popular thread on Scanalyst.
I wonder if @Shalmaneser is equipped with the web browsing plugin required to summarize the number of COVID-19 cases in .ch throughout 2023 so far?
I’m sorry, but as an AI language model, I do not have access to real-time browsing data. However, I can suggest using a reliable data source such as the World Health Organization (WHO) or the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health website to get the latest COVID-19 case information in Switzerland.
More precisely, this was the third referendum to extend the special powers granted to the Confederation government to respond to COVID-19, and the third approved. All three extensions were supported by by Big Everything (Big business, Big Government, Big parties, Big labour, Big media, Big banks, etc.).
There were three federal referenda on the ballot on 2023-06-18. All were decided on the globalist side, driving a stake further into the heart of Old, Exceptional Switzerland:
59.1% to 78% yes votes for Big State in its various forms. But is that really “democracy”?
Presumably those are percentages of the votes cast – and since this is Switzerland, we can assume the counts are honest. It would be interesting to see the positive votes as a percentage of the total electorate. Looking at things in my neighborhood, it is not unusual to see that the high percentage numbers thrown about by the triumphant media represent a rather small minority of the total electorate.
“Democracy” would be more meaningful if citizens who decide not to vote on an issue (or who didn’t even know there was an election) had to be counted as No votes.
Complete official results, including percentage of the eligible voters who cast ballots and a breakdown canton-by-canton are available at “Votation populaire du 18.06.2023” (German and Italian versions are linked in the header).
Nationwide rates of participation were:
OECD minimum tax of 15% on multinational company earnings, 42.37% participation
COVID-19 law extension, 42.49% participation
Net zero carbon emissions by 2050, 42.54% participation
Turnout is fairly consistent across cantons with a few outliers. On the net zero vote, for example, turnout varied from 32.27% to 63.58%, but must were close to the national average of 42.54%. Participation in this range is typical for a referendum which is expected to be decided by 60% or more in one direction. Swiss are nothing if not practical, and if the outcome seems already baked in the cake, why take the trouble to vote?
Thanks for that info. So the percentage of citizens who actually cast a vote in favor of the Big State proposals ranged from about 26% to 35%. Minority rule! Isn’t “democracy” wonderful?
Those unsatisfied with the result of elections sometimes claim that low participation invalidates the result, but I’ve seen little evidence to support an argument that those who didn’t vote would make a substantial difference in the percentage outcome had they voted. The most common reason for apathy in Swiss elections, especially on initiatives and referenda, is that it’s relatively rare for them to be close: most are decided by a margin of 60/40 or more. It’s only when there’s a close controversial issue that you see high turnout. For example, in the May 2014 referendum that rejected purchase of Gripen fighter jets by 53.41% against vs. 46.59% for, turnout was 56.33%.
That would be (is) a valid reason for citizens not bothering to vote. Just one question – How do those citizens know that the referendum will not be close?
Dominion voting machines? Probably it is because the media and the polling industry keep telling everyone that only mysogynistic racists are going to vote against the Big State preferred outcome. and they are a distinct & hated minority. In effect, the tiny minority who work in the Big Media industry have a grossly over-weighted voice in “democracy”.
That is not an easy issue to resolve in societies which see “Freedom of the Press” as important. My humble suggestion is that citizens who do not cast a vote should be treated as No-votes, rather than the Yes-votes they are effectively treated under present systems. Make adoption of new rules dependent upon the proponents getting the affirmative votes of an absolute majority (50% +1) of all citizens registered to vote.
Perhaps some day we might get this – but only after the impending inevitable Collapse.
