Majority of Swiss in favour of licence fee reduction, says poll
Keystone / Laurent Gillieron
A people’s initiative, which aims to reduce compulsory radio and television licence fees has won over 61% of Swiss citizens, a survey revealed on Friday.
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La mayoría, a favor de la reducción del canon, según una encuesta
Only 36% of those questioned rejected it, while 3% had no opinion, according to the survey conducted by the Tamedia group and 20 Minutes news outlet in collaboration with the LeeWas institute and published on Friday.
The divide between genders and ages is not very marked, but political party affiliations showed strong disparities. While 87% of UDC respondents and 75% of PLR respondents support the text, only 35% of Socialists and 29% of Greens support it.
The survey was conducted between September 19 and 20 and polled 29,081 people. The margin of error is plus or minus 1%.
Following on from the “No licence fee” initiative widely rejected in 2018 by 71.6% of voters, the new initiative by the Swiss People’s Party, the Swiss Union of Arts and Crafts (usam) and the young Radicals calls for the licence fee to be reduced from CHF335 to CHF200 per year. The initiative also calls for the abolition of company fees. The date of the vote has not yet been set.
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