Seven national referendums were held in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

during 2017. Polling took place on 12 February, 21 May and 24 September, whilst no referendum was scheduled for the November date.

February referendums

Three referendums were held on 12 February: *One on the federal decree of 30 September 2016, to allow easier naturalisation of third generation immigrants *One on the federal decree of 30 September 2016, to create a fund for national roads and urban infrastructure *One on the federal law of 17 June 2016, to overhaul the corporate tax code to attract and retain international firms

Results

May referendum

One referendum was held on 21 May on whether to accept the new Energy Act, establishing the Energy Strategy 2050, which seeks to phase out

nuclear energy Nuclear energy may refer to: *Nuclear power, the use of sustained nuclear fission or nuclear fusion to generate heat and electricity *Nuclear binding energy, the energy needed to fuse or split a nucleus of an atom *Nuclear potential energy, the pot ...

and increase renewable energy and energy efficiency. The plan was opposed by the

Swiss People's Party The Swiss People's Party (, SVP; , PPS), also known as the Democratic Union of the Centre (, UDC; , UDC), is a national-conservative and right-wing populist political party in Switzerland. Chaired by Marcel Dettling, it is the largest party in ...

, which launched the

optional referendum The optional referendum is a referendum which comes from a request by governmental authorities or the public. The best known types of optional referendums is the popular initiative to request a law, and the popular (or abrogative) referendum ...

against it. The Energy Act was approved by 58% of voters.

September referendums

On 24 September referendums were held on: *A Federal Decree on Food Security *A Federal Decree on Additional Funding for OASI Pensions *A Federal Act on the 2020 Pension Reforms The latter two referendums were related, and the Federal Act on the 2020 Pension Reforms would only have gone into effect if the proposed VAT increase was also accepted by voters. The pension reform would have raised the women's retirement age to 65. The proposed reforms were supported by centre and left-of-centre parties and opposed by right-of-centre parties such as the FDP.The Liberals and the

References

{{Swiss elections Referndums

Referendums in Switzerland

Referendums A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate (rather than their representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding (resulting in the adoption of a new policy) or advis ...