Swiss Voters Reject Stricter Neutrality in Every Canton
About 70% voted against writing a strict definition of neutrality into the constitution, and every canton rejected it. The proposal, promoted by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, would have required Switzerland to curb cooperation with NATO and abandon its sanctions against Russia. Turnout was around 46%. The foreign minister, Ignazio Cassis, had argued through the campaign that the existing arrangement “has proved its worth”.
This was the first time neutrality itself — centuries old and central to how the Swiss understand their own country — went to a national ballot, and the answer was not a rejection of neutrality but a refusal to define it rigidly. The practical effect is to leave the government free to keep mirroring European Union sanctions on Moscow and to keep working with NATO, which is precisely what the initiative was written to stop. The Kremlin backed the proposal, which did its supporters no favours. It is a heavy personal defeat for the party’s billionaire patron Christoph Blocher, a prominent backer who spent millions of francs on the campaign and who, at 85, wanted one more win. Both the government and parliament had urged rejection, and only one major party supported it. Watch whether the margin emboldens Bern on defence cooperation.