Complaint: Geneva wants to prevent AHV votes
A Geneva voter will prevent the vote on two AHV proposals.Image: Keystone
In more than a month, Switzerland will vote on a package for the AHV. A Geneva citizen will prevent this – but his scene has no chance.
08/19/2022, 07:4708/19/2022, 19:32
On September 25, Switzerland will vote on a total of four proposals. The Federal Council decides this at the end of May with a decision that usually does not cause a sensation.
But this time it was different: Two days later, a citizen of Geneva decided to take an unusual step. He warned the Geneva government council (officially called the «council of state») to lodge a complaint with which he wanted nothing less than to prevent the election. His voting rights complaint focused on the two bills for the AHV reform: one will increase VAT, the other will raise the retirement age for women to 65, among other things.
The complaint with the noble goal
It is not known who this “Geneva citizen” is. Neither the Federal Chancellery nor the Federal Supreme Court (where the appeal is currently pending) wanted to comment explicitly. However, watson gained insight into the complainant’s arguments during research.
They have it all. The Geneva native criticizes that the vote on the AHV reform would violate his fundamental rights: “The election violates freedom of vote and the principle of the unity of matter.”
In other words: He accuses the political leaders of coercing the people with the election. He bases his criticism on the fact that both proposals have been linked: if one of the two voting questions is rejected, the entire reform will fail.
In the complaint, he relies on the Federal Constitution, which protects freedom of opinion in voting proposals. These people’s rights therefore prohibit one and the same people’s initiative from re-regulating several issues at the same time. The principle of “unity of matter” is intended to guarantee that citizens can better express themselves on voting issues.
“Not responsible” reasoned on eight pages
Unsurprisingly, the Geneva State Council dismissed the complaint. Not because the citizens justified their arguments seemingly indiscriminately with articles of the Federal Constitution (he argued with Articles 5, 35, 36 and 194). The Government Council provided explicit justification, explanations on the case law, why it was actually not responsible for such complaints.
Specifically: The Council of State explained on eight pages why it must comment on the complaint (in summary: because the complaint came from a Geneva citizen) and at the same time is not allowed to comment on the complaint.
The complaints then ended up with the Federal Chancellery, so that they could also comment on the matter. This did not hesitate for long, because the Geneva executive had already justified most of it, and explained briefly and concisely: Resolutions of the Federal Council and the Federal Assembly are not made by the Federal Supreme Court. The conclusion of the Federal Chancellery was therefore final: “The complaint is obviously inadmissible.”
«Files of the Federal Assembly and the Federal Council cannot be challenged in the Federal Supreme Court. Exceptions are determined by the law.”
The Federal Constitution prohibits the Federal Supreme Court from adjudicating decisions of Parliament
Nevertheless, the high court in Lausanne will soon have to comment on the complaint – according to the rule of law. The court dossier with the number 1C_378/2022 was even classified internally as a “media-effective case” at the request of court reporters.
The moral of the story? From the start, the complainant had no chance. If he hadn’t leafed through the Federal Constitution so quickly, he would have come across Article 189 himself. This regulates (also in French) what the Federal Supreme Court may judge.
What else remains from the research? The canton of Geneva (so they say in the Swiss political sphere) and its citizens are particularly keen on making complaints. A large proportion, if not half, of all complaints against federal referendum proposals are said to come from the international city on Lac Léman.
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