New cantonal constitution suffers shipwreck in Valais
Published: Sunday, Mar 3rd 2024, 17:31
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The people of Valais clearly rejected the new cantonal constitution. They preferred to retain the founding text from 1907.
The draft of the new constitution, which included the right to vote and stand for election for foreigners with a C permit, was rejected with 68.1 percent of votes against, while the draft without this option was rejected with 57 percent of votes against.
The turnout was 61.5 percent, as reported by the Valais State Chancellery on Sunday.
No region accepted the proposal or the variant. In Upper Valais, almost 85% of the votes were against the proposal and 74.8% against the variant. On the French-speaking side, the No vote was less clear: Central Valais rejected the bill with 62.9 percent and the variant with 51.2 percent, while Lower Valais rejected it with 60.9 and 49.9 percent respectively.
On March 4, 2018, the people of Valais approved the popular initiative for a total revision of the constitution with almost 73% of votes in favour and decided to assign this task to a Constitutional Council. This council worked for four years on the draft of the new constitution, which was to replace the one from 1907.
Opponents had criticized that the new constitution would lead to a bloated administrative apparatus and weaken the German-speaking minority in Upper Valais. If the new constitution had been adopted, the number of cantonal councillors would have been increased from five to seven. In addition, the foreign resident population would have been included in the distribution of seats in the cantonal parliament.
It was mainly the center and the SVP that were up in arms against the bill. However, opposition also came from the business community.
Too many adjustments at once
The population preferred to reject a project that may have caused fear, said Yannick Ruppen (center), President of the French-speaking No Committee, when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. The population had "not said no to progress, but to too many adjustments at the same time", he added.
Géraldine Gianadda, coordinator of the Presidential College of the Constitutional Council, spoke of a "cold shower": "We are extremely disappointed that we did not succeed in convincing the population," she said, also expressing her "surprise" at the extent of the rejection in French-speaking Valais.
The new constitution was intended to lead Valais into the 21st century. It was supported by the SP, the FDP, the Greens and part of the center of the French-speaking Valais.
All work for nothing
In Valais, the No vote heralds the end of the total revision of the cantonal constitution. The Constitutional Council will be dissolved in April. There is "no plan B", said Gianadda, regretting that all the work of this assembly has been lost.
It remains to be seen what will happen with the complaints submitted during the referendum campaign.
Valais is not the first canton to reject a total revision of its constitution, as Pascal Mahon, professor emeritus at the University of Neuchâtel, explained on request. In April 1979, the people of the canton of Aargau rejected a text drawn up by the Constitutional Council. In a second attempt, the new constitution was finally adopted by a large majority in 1980.
In Schaffhausen, a draft was rejected by the Grand Council in 2001 before being revised to take account of the objections. Here, too, the second draft was adopted by a large majority a year later.
©Keystone/SDA
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