Watson on pension fund reform and the biodiversity initiative
Published: Sunday, Sep 22nd 2024, 16:31
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The online portal Watson comments on the rejection of the pension fund reform and the no to the biodiversity initiative as follows:
"The BVG reform and the biodiversity initiative have clearly failed. This was due to mistakes by the proponents, but also to two 'no' campaigns that bordered on the unreasonable. (...)
If the initiative to protect biodiversity is accepted, 30 percent of usable land would be lost, the No committee insinuated in its campaign. With a question mark, but none of this is in the initiative text. The 30 percent target was adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal two years ago. Switzerland agreed to this. It would therefore be obliged to work towards this target - popular initiative or not.
This leads to a nasty suspicion: the opponents from the farmers' association were not only interested in scuppering the biodiversity initiative, but also in finding a pretext to stop or water down the Montreal implementation. (...)
The situation is similar with the second proposal, the reform of the occupational pension scheme (BVG). (...) In this case, too, the opponents stopped at nothing. This is particularly true of the trade unions. Their slogan 'Pay more. Less pension' was simply wrong in this sweeping way. They operated with questionable figures and case studies and ranted about inflation compensation, which is not provided for in the second pillar. In doing so, they exploited the complexity of the subject matter with rare brazenness."
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