30 November 14 Swiss referenda.
According to the newspaper 24 Heures, preliminary national results of the three votes in Switzerland this weekend were overwhelmingly “No”. The Ecopop initiative resulted in 74% voting “No”, the initiative seeking to do away with lump sum taxation or forfait fiscaux resulted in 62% voting “No”, and 77% voted against the initiative that would have required the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to hold a certain amount of gold.
The Swiss seem to have responded to pragmatic calls to vote in favour of the status quo. Ecopop, a call to drastically limit immigration on environmental grounds, was presented by those opposed to it as an economically damaging dead end proposal, doing away with lump sum tax deals was presented by those opposed to it as a loss of tax receipts, and the gold initiative was described as a foolhardy monetary straight jacket by those who work in the financial sector, including gold traders and the SNB itself. The Economist also came out against the gold initiative in a piece entitled “Full of holes” in which it’s described as a woolly proposal that would reduce the ability of the SNB to influence the Swiss Franc’s value and reduce SNB profits.
Results update on 30 November 14 at 17:50:
Click on the links below to see the results by canton (in French) from the Swiss government’s website. The initiative to abolish lump sum taxation result is 59.2% “NO”. The Ecopop initiative result is 74.1% “NO”. The gold initiative result is 77.3% “NO”.
