Swiss Voters Reject Stricter Neutrality Rules by About 70 Percent, Leaving Sanctions on Russia Possible

Swiss voters turned down a proposal to tighten the country's neutrality on Sunday, with just under 30 percent in favour and more than 70 percent against, according to final results from the Federal Statistical Office. Al Jazeera's report on the referendum describes a clear defeat for a campaign that Moscow had welcomed and that the government, parliament and nearly every major party had fought.

What the initiative would have done

The proposal was organised by the sovereignty group Pro Switzerland and backed by the Swiss People's Party, the country's largest. It would have defined neutrality as "perpetual and armed", barred Switzerland from joining military or defence alliances unless the country was attacked or an attack was imminent, and allowed sanctions against warring states only where the United Nations Security Council had approved them. Because Russia holds a veto on that council, the sanctions clause would in practice have ended the policy Switzerland adopted after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when it began mirroring European Union measures against Moscow.

The government told voters the change would leave the country "less able to respond to international crises". Neutrality has long been a defining national idea: Al Jazeera notes that Switzerland has been recognised as neutral since 1815 and that the principle has sat in the federal constitution since 1848.

Cassis: not a vote against neutrality

Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis was careful about how the result is read. Swissinfo quotes him saying: "This result is not a vote against neutrality," and, "Switzerland was neutral yesterday, it is neutral today." He defended the decision to follow EU sanctions on the grounds that "the fate of Ukraine touched the interests of a small country like Switzerland directly."