Referendum on measures: The Swiss special route in the pandemic

Switzerland has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe, and infection numbers are skyrocketing. Now the population should vote on new corona measures. The opponents determine the debate – although they are in the minority.

The Swiss corona rules are straightforward. Mask must be worn on trains and buses. 3G applies in restaurants and bars, museums and theaters as well as at other events – i.e. vaccinated, recovered or tested. But the number of new infections has also been rising steeply in Switzerland for weeks. The vaccination rate is low: nationwide, only 65 percent are vaccinated, in some cantons of central Switzerland barely more than half.

Last Wednesday, the Swiss authorities reported more than 8,500 new infections. In Germany that would correspond to a number of more than 80,000. However, the Swiss government is reacting differently to the worrying pandemic situation than the neighboring countries – namely not at all.

Responsibility lies with the cantons

“If possible, we would like to avoid tightening the measures throughout Switzerland,” said Health Minister Alain Berset. The situation in the country is “critical”, but there is still room in the hospitals. “Currently the exposure to corona patients in the intensive care units is relatively low. Around 20 percent of the places are occupied and there is still time to react.”

But please let others do that now, recommended the Minister of Health, and quickly passed the responsibility on to the cantons. The pandemic political reluctance in Bern has to do with the referendum on Sunday. The Swiss are voting on the Covid-19 law – the basis in particular for the currently applicable 3G verification requirement. And seldom has a referendum campaign in Switzerland been so bitter and emotional.

Opponents complain of discrimination

The opponents of the Swiss Covid Act have been pulling out all the stops for weeks. In the only country that allows the population to vote on the corona measures in direct democracy, they complain about alleged discrimination and deprivation of liberty of unvaccinated people. The no-sayers loudly dominate the public debates before the referendum – with the support of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, the SVP.

“This law is very un-Swiss,” said SVP MP Martina Bircher on a talk show on Swiss television SRF. Her party colleague Ueli Maurer, the Swiss finance minister, posed in a T-shirt made by the so-called “freedom troublemakers”, who use traditional cowbells to cast off against the government’s corona policy and lead most of the street protests.

Despite the majority, supporters are hardly present

It is also astonishing that the proponents of the Bern Covid Act are hardly present in the bitter disputes before the referendum. They are in the majority. At least that’s what the polls say: 61 percent of the Swiss want to vote “yes” next Sunday.

“I’m retired and vaccinated,” says Jacqueline. “I am very clearly in favor of the law. Without ifs and buts. It’s a shame that people attack each other because of that. You have to pull yourself together. Even if not everyone agrees.”

Giampiero, a Genevan with Italian roots, does not care about the stories of the noisy Swiss lateral thinkers: “I trust the scientists and the federal state. Now that the pandemic situation is so bad again, I am in favor of categorical decisions. New waves of contagion and to prevent a lockdown, radical decisions are needed. “

However, these are not to be expected for the time being. At least not with the government in Bern. And not before the referendum. Individual cantons have now reacted to the worrying pandemic development with regionally limited measures. In Lucerne, for example, a mask is now required in addition to the nationwide 3G rule in cinemas and theaters, concert halls and hospitals.