After a long and lively debate the Swiss House of Representatives has rejected the bill concerning new tobacco advertising regulations.
This content was published on
3 minutes
Keystone-SDA
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party thought the advertising restrictions for the tobacco industry went too far, while left-wing members of the chamber thought they didn’t go far enough. The bill now returns to the Senate.
In future, children and young people will no longer be allowed to see advertising for tobacco products. That is what voters and cantons wrote into the constitution in February 2022 with a popular initiative.
The government wants to implement the initiative with a comprehensive ban on advertising, for tobacco products and also for e-cigarettes. The Senate weakened the bill last autumn. On Thursday it was the House of Representatives’ turn. It also provided for several exceptions to the ban on tobacco advertising.
In the end, it rejected the bill in the overall vote by 121 votes to 64 with five abstentions. The People’s Party, the left-wing Social Democratic Party and the Greens were almost unanimous in voting no. The reasons for this varied.
‘Massive disregard for the will of the people’
The People’s Party parliamentary group argued that the government had gone beyond the text of the popular initiative in its draft. The present law was neither sensible nor feasible in practice, it said.
The left wing of the chamber, on the other hand, tried in vain with several motions to achieve a stricter implementation of the initiative and thus a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising. Speakers for the Social Democrats and the Greens criticised parliament’s decisions to date as a “massive disregard for the will of the people”. They therefore rejected the overall result.
The bill will now go back to the Senate. If it also rejects the bill or the House of Representatives rejects it a second time, the matter will be closed. Parliament would then have to start from square one on the implementation of the new constitutional article.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
In Switzerland more people are being referred to electrical therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Are there similar approaches where you live?
Ex-sect member sentenced in Zurich for sexual abuse
This content was published on
Zurich District Court has sentenced a former member of the globally active sect "Children of God" to a partial prison sentence.
SNB chairman does not rule out slowdown in Swiss growth
This content was published on
Martin Schlegel, chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), does not rule out a weakening of the Swiss economy in light of the tariff dispute.
Swiss NGOs abroad to receive 10% less federal funding
This content was published on
In 2025 and 2026, Swiss NGOs will have 10% less federal funding available for international cooperation than in the previous two-year period.
Swiss parties spent less than CHF1 million on February green vote
This content was published on
Swiss political parties spent CHF 700,000 ($840,000) on campaigns in the run-up to the overwhelmingly defeated vote on February 9, according to the Swiss Federal Audit Office.
This content was published on
Swisswool, the largest Swiss wool processor, is not accepting any wool for the first time this spring. For many sheep farmers, the only option is to get rid of the wool.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.