by Yannick Vanderborght | Aug 6, 2013 | News
A Swiss petition drive has collected more than the 100,000 signatures necessary to trigger a referendum on introducing Basic Income in Switzerland. If the government certifies 100,000 of the signatures as valid, a referendum will be held within two years. The proposal does not specify the amount of the basic income, but it would enshrine the principle in Switzerland’s constitution. The proposal is controversial. Even some unions and left organizations have dismissed basic income as a “bonus for laziness.” This proposal is one of several petition drives for basic income in Europe this year, some have been waged nationally and some at level of the European Union as a whole.
For more information see:
Jourdan, Stanislas, “Will the basic income revolution come from Switzerland?” Boiling Frogs, Alternatives, June 3, 2013
Vogele, Wolfgang G., “Swiss parliament may soon debate unconditional basic income,” NNA: News with a difference, 30 Apr 2013
Geiser, Urs “Basic income for all. Old utopian revived on Swiss streets,” swissinfo.ch, June 13, 2013
The Swiss initiative in print
by Yannick Vanderborght | Apr 16, 2012 | News
As BINews already reported[1], on 21st April 2012, Switzerland is starting a petition for a referendum on basic income with a big party in Zurich. BINews also reported[2], that, last year in June, the National Council of Switzerland rejected a parliamentary initiative on unconditional basic income.
On 12th April 2012, a press-conference on launching the basic income petition was held in Bern. After this the media response in Switzerland has been huge. Even TV broadcasted news and reports which mentioned the petition for BIG referendum.[3] Some articles are also available in English.[4]
Obviously, not all articles argued that the idea is reasonable, but some did, and some reported neutral while providing pro and contra positions. However, some articles were not well researched, and gave the impression that journalists had not properly understood some basic facts.[5]
It remains to be seen if the initiative will accomplish at least 100,000 valid signatures within 18 months, and if further reports are published in the international press.
[1] https://binews.org/2012/03/switzerland-petition-drive-for-a-referendum-on-a-basic-income/
[2] https://binews.org/2011/06/switzerland-national-council-rejects-basic-income-initiative/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NIxmqD2GTw (German)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r-5Cs5mT9M (German)
[4] https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss_news/Initiative_launched_for_guaranteed_income.html?cid=32468670
[5] In a illustrative article, for instance, BIEN-Switzerland is presented as BIEN itself, whereas it is only one of the numerous recognized national networks: https://www.thelocal.ch/national/20120412_3074.html
by Karl Widerquist | Mar 22, 2012 | News
On April 21st, 2012 Switzerland is starting a petition for a referendum on a basic income with a big party in Zurich. The referendum would establish the following principles in the constitution:
- the confederation installs a basic income
- the basic income allows the whole population a dignified life and full participation
- the law lays down funding and amount of the basic income
The petition needs 100,000 signatures to bring the referendum to a vote. The initiative follows the national motto: Unus pro omnibus – omnes pro uno (all for one and one for all).
For further information to go:
https://bedingungslos.ch/ (only German) (translations in French and Italian are going to be added)
by Yannick Vanderborght | May 19, 2011 | News
The Swiss initiative Initiative Grundeinkommen is focusing on preparatory operations for a referendum to launch a nationwide Basic Income. In Switzerland, federal popular initiatives are not subject to judicial review as they amend the federal constitution. Promoters of popular initiatives have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures. If they succeed, the initiative is put before the Swiss citizenry in a national vote. Daniel Häni, Enno Schmidt together with the newly-established foundation Stiftung Kulturimpuls and Agentur[mit]Grundeinkommen hope that a congress on Basic Income will be the next milestone in bringing Basic Income to the mind of a bedrock of people. The congress was held in Zurich on March 19th, 2011. Further information:
https://www.bedingungslos.ch/
https://www.initiative-grundeinkommen.ch/
https://www.agenturmitgrundeinkommen.ch/
https://www.stiftung-kulturimpuls.ch/
Nenad Stojanovic, a Zurich-based Political scientist and member of the Socialist party, also published a short note on the Swiss basic income debate in the Socialist monthly Pages de gauche, issue 96, February 2011. See https://www.pagesdegauche.ch/
by Yannick Vanderborght | Nov 7, 2010 | News
On June 17, 2010, Netzwerk Grundeinkommen in Germany together with the Austrian basic income network and Attac-Austria launched their European Citizens Initiative for Basic Income project and website (https://www.basicincomeinitiative.eu/). The main goal of the project is to find potential supporters for a future EU referendum for the introduction of a basic income. More countries are expected to join the project and all basic income organizations are invited to do so. To date, more than 9.000 supporters have signed the declaration: “I support the introduction of an unconditional, generalized, individual basic income high enough to ensure an existence in dignity and participation in society”, where “high enough” means that the income should at a minimum be at the poverty-risk level according to EU standards, which corresponds to 60 % of the so-called national median net equivalent income.
