Six 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 2010; three in March on pension funds, animal protection and a constitutional amendment, one in September on unemployment benefits, and two in November on deporting foreign criminals and introducing a canton tax.

Results

March

Voters approved Provision 1, an amendment to the constitution on research on humans. Voters rejected Provision 2, a federal decree on providing enhanced legal protection for animals. Voters also rejected Provision 3, a federal law which would change the minimum conversion rate for occupational and disability pension plans.Election Profile
IFES

September

The referendum held on 26 September had a single topic, namely the revision of

unemployment benefits Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work d ...

. The centre and right-wing parties were in favour of the revision, which was undertaken to reduce the debt of the ALV, while the left-wing parties were against it. The referendum was approved by 53.4% of voters, although only the German-speaking cantons (all of them except

Basel-Stadt Canton of Basel-Stadt or Basel-City ( ; ; ; ) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of three municipalities with Basel as the capital. It is traditionally considered a " half-canton", the other half being B ...

, which was against it with 50.4%) approved it.

November

The referendum held on 28 November had two issues: * ''«Für die Ausschaffung krimineller Ausländer»'' ("For the deportation of criminal foreigners"), proposed 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 ...

, as well as a counterproposal by the other partes; and * ''«Steuergerechtigkeits-Initiative»'' ("Taxation justice

initiative Popular initiative A popular initiative (also citizens' initiative) is a form of direct democracy by which a petition meeting certain hurdles can force a legal procedure on a proposition. In direct initiative, the proposition is put direct ...

") for higher taxes on high incomes and property as well as the introduction of a minimum cantonal tax. The SVP's

federal popular initiative The federal popular initiative (German: ''Eidgenössische Volksinitiative'', French: ''Initiative populaire fédérale'', Italian: ''Iniziativa popolare federale'', Romansh: ''Iniziativa federala dal pievel''), is a Swiss civic right enabling 10 ...

on deportation was accepted with 52.2% and a majority of cantons in favour, while the counterproposal failed with only 44.5% in favour. Whilst it was not required, the tie-breaker showed a majority of voters against but a majority of cantons for. On 28 February 2016, a follow-up initiative, also launched by the SVP, was rejected by voters. The deportation initiative went in effect on 1 October 2016. The taxation initiative failed with only 41.5% in favour.

Withdrawn

In August 2010, family members of a murder victim launched another constitutional amendment initiative to provide for

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

in cases of murder combined with sexual violence. The initiative quickly found itself at the center of public attention and was roundly rejected by political leaders; it was withdrawn a day after its official publication.

References

{{Portal bar, Politics, Switzerland 2010 elections in Switzerland 2010 referendums

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Constitutional amendments Pension referendums Constitutional referendums in Switzerland