Switzerland to Hold Referendum on Covid-19 Lockdown – The Wall Street Journal

Switzerlands system of direct democracy will be put to the test again later this year, this time with a referendum on whether to roll back the governments powers to impose lockdowns and other measures to slow the Covid-19 pandemic.

The landlocked Alpine nation of 8.5 million people is unusual in providing its people a say on important policy moves by offering referendums if enough people sign a petition for a vote. Last year, Swiss voted on increasing the stock of low-cost housing, tax allowances for children and hunting wolves.

The idea is to provide citizens a check on the power of the federal government, and it is a throwback to the fiercely independent patchwork of cantons, or districts, that were meshed in the medieval period.

Now, the country is set for a referendum on whether to remove the governments legal authority to order lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions after campaigners submitted a petition of some 86,000 signatures this weekhigher than the 50,000 requiredtriggering a nationwide vote to repeal last years Covid-19 Act.

The ballot could come as soon as June, and it appears set to mirror disputes in the U.S. and elsewhere over how far governments should go to limit social interactions in a pandemicor whether to lock down at all.

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Switzerland to Hold Referendum on Covid-19 Lockdown - The Wall Street Journal