Swiss Abroad gave strong support to ‘13th month’ pension rise

The Swiss voted on March 3 on two important pension issues. KEYSTONE/© KEYSTONE / SALVATORE DI NOLFI

In Sunday's pension votes, around two-thirds (65%) of Swiss citizens who live abroad backed the proposal to increase monthly pension payments. A similar percentage (66%) rejected a plan to raise the retirement age from 65 to 66.

The figure for the Swiss Abroad is higher than the national figure. On March 3, 58.2% of Swiss voters, and a majority of cantons, backed the “Better living in retirement” initiativeExternal link, which will grant an additional 13th monthly pension payment to help retirees struggling to make ends meet in the face of rising living costs.

In a separate vote, 74.7% of citizens rejected a people’s initiative which aimed to ensure the long-term financing of the pension system by gradually raising the retirement age from 65 to 66 over the next decade, then pegging it to life expectancy.

It is not always the case that the Swiss Abroad and the Swiss population as a whole vote in a similar fashion. On March 3, differences were less significant than in previous votes.

On Sunday, voters unambiguously backed the 13th monthly pension payment initiative; support from the Swiss Abroad was even higher: 7 percentage points (according to partial vote statistics of the Swiss Abroad based on 12 of 26 cantons).

For Martina Mousson, a political scientist at the gfs.bern research institute, Sunday’s result represents a show of “enormous” support from the Swiss Abroad.

“You have to bear in mind that we’re talking about a popular initiative, not a government project,” she points out. As a rule, initiatives are not accepted, or they are very close.”

The fact that retired people or people close to retirement age make up a large proportion of the Swiss Abroad undoubtedly played a decisive role, said the researcher.

In 2022, around 183,000 Swiss people over the age of 65 were living overseas, representing almost 30% of the expatriate population who can vote.

For Ariane Rustichelli, director of the Organisation of the Swiss Abroad (OSA), the Swiss Abroad’s strong support for the 13th monthly pension payment initiative can be explained above all by the “impoverishment” of part of this population.

She notes that more and more Swiss people who have worked all their lives in Switzerland are choosing to emigrate when they retire in order to “live decently”, and many do not have luxurious lifestyles abroad.

Another factor is the political make-up of the Swiss Abroad, which traditionally votes more to the left than Swiss citizens back home.

Vote to raise retirement age to 66

The popular initiative calling for the retirement age to be raised from 65 to 66 was roundly rejected both in Switzerland and by voters overseas, but the latter had a slightly more favourable opinion (nine percentage points less than the overall result).

This difference can be largely explained by the fact that most Swiss Abroad would not be affected by this reform, either because they have already retired or because they are subject to the systems in their host country.

Martina Mousson points out that “raising the retirement age is already a reality or under discussion in many countries, which may explain why there was greater acceptance”.

Ariane Rustichelli of OSA adds: “We can assume that supporting work up to the age of 66 was the solution for some people in terms of financing the 13th monthly pension payment initiative.”

Higher turnout

In the 12 cantons where the Swiss Abroad are registered, almost 44,400 ballots were cast out of just over 155,000 voters. This represents a turnout of 28.6%, the third highest for federal votes in five years.

Turnout for the Swiss Abroad was higher than the average in recent years (26.1%). But this figure suggests that the vote did not really mobilise voters beyond the regular electorate.

In Switzerland the issue sparked huge interest: turnout on March 3 was 58%; average turnout in recent years is 46%.

Translated from French by Simon Bradley/ts

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