The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: mountaineer on January 15, 2021, 11:27:54 pm
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Switzerland to Hold Referendum on Government’s Pandemic Powers
by James Murphy
January 15, 2021 In Switzerland, campaigners have gained enough signatures to force a national referendum on the government’s power to impose lockdowns and other freedom-suppressing measures on the citizenry. The referendum would decide the fate of the 2020 Covid-19 Act, which was passed in late September.
The group Freunden der Verfassung (Friends of the Constitution) garnered 90,000 signatures for the petition, far in excess of the 50,000 needed to vote on the repeal. A vote is expected as early as June of this year.
Under Swiss law, the outcome of the vote will be legally binding. According Friends of the Constitution, no other people are likely to be given the opportunity to have a direct say on their government’s responses to the pandemic. “Swiss voters can vote on government measures to combat Covid-19. This right will probably not be granted to any other people in the world,†said the group.
Friends of the Constitution has argued that the government is using the pandemic to enact sweeping reforms that are unnecessary, ineffective, and potentially even dangerous to the nation’s population. ...
More at The New American (https://thenewamerican.com/switzerland-to-hold-referendum-on-governments-pandemic-powers/)
I sure would like to be living in Switzerland about now. :crying:
FYI: this seems to be a John Birch Society site. Not sure whether that's relevant to the story or not, but wanted to make that disclosure. The story also has been reported in the Daily Mail (U.K.) (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9151963/Switzerland-hold-referendum-strip-government-lockdown-powers.html) and Business Insider, via MSN News (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/switzerland-is-holding-a-referendum-on-whether-to-strip-the-government-of-its-power-to-impose-coronavirus-lockdowns/ar-BB1cKGJf).
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Swiss have the freest economy in Europe. I worked there for a year and it was tough to leave. Their country is definitely in better shape than the US, top to bottom.
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I only have visited a few times, but it does seem almost idyllic!