Citizens reject all additional burdens
Published: Sunday, Mar 3rd 2024, 17:10
العودة إلى البث المباشر
Following the Yes vote to the initiative for a 13th AHV pension, supporters have called for it to be implemented quickly. The conservative parties, which opposed the initiative, announced their opposition to additional taxes and levies.
The vote was the first time in history that voters approved a trade union and an AHV initiative. The joy on the left was correspondingly great. SP Co-President Mattea Meyer spoke of a victory for the people.
The Yes vote is also a mandate to parliament to protect people's purchasing power with concrete measures, her party wrote on Sunday. After years of tax privileges for large corporations, the bourgeois majority must understand that it is the people's turn.
Rejection of cuts
The strong support of the population for a socially financed pension scheme strengthens the SP in its fight against the announced pension cuts as part of the pension fund reform.
The Greens see the Yes to the 13th AHV pension as a red card to the conservative parties. This means they will have to question their plans to cut occupational pension reform and child and widow's pensions.
The Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) describes the Yes vote as a clear commitment to the AHV. And the issue of the retirement age is also off the table for the SGB and the Travailsuisse umbrella organization for employees with the No to the Young Liberals' pension initiative.
Resistance to additional workload
The losing side, comprising the SVP, FDP and business associations, immediately announced its opposition to financing the 13th AHV pension with additional levies or taxes. The AHV needed structural reforms. They regretted the rejection of the Young Liberals' pension initiative, which would have provided impetus by adjusting the retirement age to life expectancy.
The SVP saw the accepted bill as a receipt for the federal government's spending policy. Its base was divided on the issue. Many supporters argued that the federal government had money for everything but its own population, the party wrote. The SVP announced its opposition to any additional burden and called for savings in asylum, development aid and aid to Ukraine.
The FDP has called on Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider to carry out a swift structural AHV revision. Switzerland is facing a financial policy shambles with the unsecured financing of the 13th AHV pension. The FDP is no longer prepared to continually increase taxes and contributions so that the AHV does not slide into the red.
Although opposed to the 13th AHV pension based on the watering can principle, the center accepted the result. It wants to keep the additional burden on the middle classes as low as possible during implementation. It also drew attention to the fact that discrimination against married couples compared to cohabiting couples continues, with married couples only receiving one and a half times the AHV pension.
BVG-Reform soll's richten
The Green Liberal Party (GLP) does not believe that the yes vote on the 13th AHV pension will improve pensions. Only the reform of the Occupational Pensions Act (BVG) will improve the pensions of part-time and multiple employees. Mitte and the business umbrella organization Economiesuisse also referred to this reform, which will be put to the vote in the second half of the year.
The Evangelical People's Party (EPP) called for a national inheritance tax on large inheritances to finance the AHV.
The Young Liberals described the results of the vote as a "worst-case scenario for the future of the AHV". The AHV for the next generation is "seriously endangered". Despite the clear "no" to their pension initiative, the Young Liberals still want to raise the issue of a higher retirement age. There is no way around an AHV overhaul and an adjustment to demographic reality.
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