Government sets out stall ahead of latest Covid referendum

The legislation provides the legal basis for – among other things – the much-debated Covid certificate. © Keystone / Martial Trezzini

Health Minister Alain Berset has called for citizens to again approve the Covid-19 law when it comes to vote next month.

The virus situation remains “unpredictable”, Berset told media on Tuesday in Bern, where he was presenting the government’s arguments in favour of the referendum on June 18 – the third time in two years that voters will decide on the so-called Covid law.

Berset said the goal was to enable authorities to be legally prepared to act quickly and effectively in case of another health emergency.

The coronavirus is still present among the population, and the possibility of a new and dangerous variant popping up can’t be ruled out, he said.

+ Background: why Switzerland is voting again on the Covid law

As such, he said, authorities need the various capabilities afforded them via the current version of the Covid law. These include the legal basis for the Covid certificate – which could again become important for travelling, if other countries were to re-introduce health measures – and the ability to oblige employers to take certain measures (such as enforced home office) to protect vulnerable employees.

The legislation also underpins state financing for the development of various medicines to tackle the effects of long Covid, Berset said. A no vote could lead to the shelving of such research projects.

‘Covid is history’

The latest update to the Covid-19 law, approved last December by parliament, extends the validity of certain parts of the legislation until mid-2024.

Opponents, from various groups which sprung up during the pandemic in Switzerland, gathered the necessary 50,000 signatures to force a vote on the revision to the law. They want to draw a complete line under the pandemic, saying that “Covid is history”.

Voters previously accepted the Covid law in June 2021 and again in November 2021.