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Post-vote survey: scant support for environmental responsibility initiative

Environmental liability initiative rejected by 69.8% of votes cast
Environmental liability initiative rejected by 69.8% of votes cast Keystone-SDA

The Swiss do not want to be restricted by environmental protection. According to a post-vote survey, however, the rejection of the initiative on environmental responsibility was significantly more pronounced among men than among women.

For 79% of men, the restrictions brought about by the initiative were unacceptable, according to the supplementary survey to the post-vote poll carried out by the Leewas Institute for 20 Minuten and Tamedia, published on Monday. However, only 61% of women voted no. Overall, the percentage of women who voted no in Sunday’s vote was 69.8%.

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The Young Greens’ initiative aimed to preserve and protect the environment. For economic activities and consumption, only those resources that nature can replace should be used. This would have required a radical change.

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The “no” to this proposal cuts across almost all population groups, the survey shows: whether they live in the country or in the city, whether they are young or old, whether they have a high or low income, they all clearly voted against the initiative.

University educated more in favour

With 42% in favour, the Young Greens’ initiative was more popular with university degree holders and graduates of universities of applied sciences. On the other hand, only 22% of those with an apprenticeship or business diploma were in favour.

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In terms of political parties, the initiative received the most support from the Green Party (75%). The Social Democrats were also keen (62%) but the Liberal Greens, on the other hand, were opposed (60% no). With 92% and 93% against, the Radicals and the Swiss People’s Party were the most opposed to the initiative.

Seniors and rural dwellers more hostile

About 73% of people aged 50 and over voted “no”, compared with 64% of young voters aged 18 to 34. Almost as many urban voters rejected the initiative (63%). In the countryside, the “no” vote was even clearer (74%).

A total of 16,711 people took part in the online survey between February 6 and 9. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.

Adapted from French by DeepL/ac

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

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