If our readers decided, the Swiss vote results would look very different

We wanted to know how you would vote if you could Keystone / Alexandra Wey

Although not all of our readers can vote in Switzerland, we suspected many had an opinion anyway. So, we put the main issues into a poll for our readers and fans on social media. These are the results.

We asked:

“Would you pay more VAT (+0.3%) and raise the retirement age for women by a year (to 65) to ensure pensions can still be paid for in the future?”

1,012 of you voted on the pensions issue (we made a simplified question, it’s very long otherwiseExternal link). The result was a resounding “yes”among our English fans and readers, with 75% in favour. 

In eight out of nine swissinfo.ch languages in which we conducted the poll, our readers agreed. Chinese was the only language in which our readers would have voted “no” to the pension reforms (52% against). 

In the actual Swiss vote on pension reforms (split into two separate questions), about 53% of voters came out against the reform project, which was launched by the government but amended by parliament following several years of debate. 

The planned increase in value-added tax (VAT) to help finance the reform also failed to win the necessary majority. 

Why do you think the results were so different in our swissinfo.ch poll and the actual result? Tell us in the comments below or on our Facebook pageExternal link.

How important is food security to our readers?

Very important, it turns out. In the actual vote on food security in Switzerland, a total of 78.7% of voters backed the proposal. In our swissinfo.ch poll, readers across all languages gave it a resounding “yes” vote, with 67% of voters (out of 843 in total) in English giving the idea their backing. 

We asked:

“Should “food security” be enshrined in the constitution, with the aim of guaranteeing food supplies for Switzerland, long term?”

This is how our readers responded in the nine languages in which we conducted the poll.

Want to contact the author of this article? You can find Jo Fahy on FacebookExternal link and TwitterExternal link.