Voting age 16 at federal level off the table after long dispute
Published: Wednesday, Feb 28th 2024, 17:00
العودة إلى البث المباشر
16 and 17-year-olds will not be able to vote and stand for election at national level for at least the foreseeable future. After years of dispute, the National Council has definitively buried a proposal to introduce the right to vote from the age of 16.
On Wednesday, the Grand Chamber decided by 106 votes to 84 to write off a parliamentary initiative by Sibel Arslan (Greens/BS) on the voting age of 16. This means it is now a thing of the past.
As recently as June 2023, the National Council voted in favor of drafting a bill - by 98 votes to 93. It had already done so in 2020 and 2021.
However, the National Council's Political Institutions Committee (SPK-N) has already asked the National Council three times to reject or write off Arslan's proposal, as it did on Wednesday. A minority of the committee wanted to instruct the SPK-N once again to draft a bill.
Arslan wanted to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote. In other words, they should be able to vote at federal level. However, there were no plans for them to be able to stand for election. That would be the passive right to vote.
The SVP and FDP parliamentary groups were in favour of the Arslan initiative and thus against the voting age of 16, as was part of the center group. The SP, Greens and GLP were in favor of the voting age of 16.
Opponent: You come of age at 18
In the lively debate, opponents of the voting age of 16 said above all that a consultation carried out last year had produced a clear result: of the 25 participating cantons, 15 said no, 7 said yes and 3 said neither yes nor no.
In earlier discussions in the National Council, it was also argued that it would not make sense to decouple the age of majority of 18 from the right to vote and stand for election. It is also problematic to separate the age threshold for the right to vote and the right to stand for election.
Proponents said on Wednesday, for example, that young people should "not be left behind" (Patrick Hässig/GLP/ZH). Austria has a voting age of 16, while the median age of the voting population in Switzerland is currently 57.
SP spokesperson Nadine Masshardt (BE) said that in the consultation process, for example, the Kaufmännische Verband and the Pfadi movement had said yes to the voting age of 16. In previous debates, supporters had already said that the political engagement of young people had increased significantly. They are often the ones who are affected by political decisions, such as a climate protection law or the structure of old-age provision.
Allegation of refusal to work
The SPK-N's decision not to draft a bill despite a request from the National Council was a particular talking point on Wednesday. Commission spokesperson Christian Wasserfallen (FDP/BE) also justified this decision with the clear result of the cantonal vote on the introduction of the voting age of 16 in the canton of Bern in September 2022. 67% of Bernese citizens said no at the time.
According to Wasserfallen, the voting behavior of the canton of Bern is mostly representative of Switzerland as a whole. The result therefore shows that a majority of the population is also against the voting age of 16. Achieving the majority of the cantons and the popular majority in a referendum on the voting age of 16 would therefore be "simply unattainable", according to the Bernese National Councillor.
This statement earned Wasserfallen the accusation from Masshardt, Arslan and Green Party spokesperson Balthasar Glättli (ZH) that it was not about a vote at the moment. It was about a procedure of the National Council.
Masshardt and Glättli described it as a "pure refusal to work" when the SPK-N ignores a mandate to draft a bill. Such an approach would lead to a "dysfunctional parliament". A bill is needed and it can still be rejected, Glättli said.
Only canton Glarus with voting age 16
According to Arslan's proposal, the introduction of a voting age of 16 at federal level requires a constitutional amendment and thus automatically requires a referendum.
In recent years, several cantons have failed to lower the voting age at the ballot box at cantonal level. Only Glarus currently has a voting age of 16.
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