National Council rejects bill to implement the tobacco advertising ban
Published: Thursday, Feb 29th 2024, 11:10
Updated At: Thursday, Feb 29th 2024, 11:11
العودة إلى البث المباشر
After a long and lively debate, the National Council rejected the bill with new tobacco advertising regulations. The SVP felt the advertising restrictions for the tobacco industry went too far, while the left-wing of the Council felt they went too little. Now it's the Council of States' turn again.
Children and young people must no longer see advertising for tobacco products in future. This was written into the constitution by the people and the cantons in February 2022 with the popular initiative "Children and young people without tobacco advertising (tobacco advertising ban initiative)".
The Federal Council wants to implement the initiative with a comprehensive ban on advertising, for tobacco products and also for e-cigarettes. The Council of States weakened the bill last fall. On Thursday, it was now the National Council's turn. It also provided for several exceptions to the ban on tobacco advertising.
In the end, the large chamber rejected the bill in the overall vote - by 121 votes to 64 with 5 abstentions. The SVP, SP and Greens almost unanimously said no. The reasons for this varied.
"Massive disregard for the will of the people"
The SVP parliamentary group argued that the Federal Council had gone beyond the text of the popular initiative "Yes to the protection of children and young people from tobacco advertising" in its draft. The present law was neither sensible nor feasible in practice.
The left wing of the Council, 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. Spokespersons for the SP and the Greens criticized Parliament's decisions to date as a "massive disregard for the will of the people". They therefore rejected the overall result in the end.
The bill now goes back to the Council of States. If it also rejects the bill or the National Council rejects it a second time, the matter is closed. Parliament would then have to start implementing the new constitutional article on field one.
©كيستون/إسدا
Arabic 
English 
German 
French 
Spanish