Swiss Abroad clearly in favour of motorway expansion

The Swiss Abroad support for motorways is surprising and difficult to interpret. Keystone / Christian Beutler

Unlike Switzerland as a whole, where only 47% of voters on Sunday backed government plans for bigger motorways, the Swiss Abroad gave them a clear thumbs-up. They also voted differently on subletting, agreeing to tighten the rules.

Although a clear Swiss Abroad yes was predicted as early as October by the first Swiss Broadcasting Corporation poll, the result of 57% is nonetheless surprising and difficult to interpret.

It is usual for the diaspora and the domestic population to vote differently – although the scope of the analyses is limited by the fact that only 12 cantons out of 26 provide separate statistics on how their citizens living abroad vote.

But traditionally, the most pro-environment and left-wing vote comes from expatriates, not from those living in Switzerland. The most recent example came in September, when a majority of the diaspora backed the biodiversity initiative, even though it failed at a national level.

On Sunday, the opposite was true. Political scientist Martina Mousson of gfs.bern is surprised by this result, which she says “contradicts the usual pattern”. She admits that she can only offer hypotheses to explain it.

The Swiss Abroad, who return to Switzerland from time to time, may perceive the increase in the density of vehicles on the roads more acutely than people who live there on a daily basis. Expatriates may be more car-dependent when they are in Switzerland; some of them may also be cross-border commuters, but no data exists on this.

The difference may also be due to comparisons between Switzerland’s motorway infrastructure and that in other countries. “The Swiss Abroad may be used to travelling on wider motorways than in Switzerland and consider this to be the norm,” Mousson suggests. Finally, the value placed on mobility could also be a factor. “Moving around a lot is part of the expat lifestyle; they may have internalised the importance of smooth mobility that works well,” she says.

Sensitive to the excesses of commercial subletting

The other issue on which the Swiss Abroad vote differs from that of voters in Switzerland is the amendment to the tenancy law on subletting. While nearly 52% of the electorate as a whole rejected this amendment, nearly 54% of the electorate based abroad – for whom statistics are available – accepted it.

Mousson believes that it is possible that the perverse effects of commercial subletting, via platforms such as Airbnb, had a greater influence on the diaspora vote. In the polls before the vote, the electorate as a whole overwhelmingly approved of the idea that these tourist sublets can give rise to abuse and fuel the housing crisis. But “this issue is dealt with to a greater extent abroad than in Switzerland, for example in certain major European cities”, she says.

No difference on other issues

The diaspora voted in a similar way to the rest of the country on the other two issues put to the vote on Sunday. They rejected the other amendment to tenancy law (which would have made it easier for landlords to terminate leases early in the event of their own needs) slightly more strongly than the electorate as a whole.

As for the standardised financing of healthcare, the Swiss Abroad accepted it in the same way as the electorate as a whole, albeit slightly more strongly.

Low turnout

Generally speaking, the vote of November 24 will not go down in history as having generated much passion. At a national level, 45% of the electorate turned out to vote, a slightly lower turnout than in recent referendums: the average turnout for referendums over the past five years has been around 50%. Among the Swiss Abroad, too, turnout was in the low range: just over 21%, compared with an average of just over 25% for recent votes.

Martina Mousson points out the discrepancy between the resources deployed and the interest aroused: the budgets invested in this campaign were the highest in 2024, the first year in which transparency is mandatory in this area.

Edited by Samuel Jaberg. Translated from French by DeepL/ts