June 23, 1974 as a historic day: 50 years after the Jura referendum:
Published: Thursday, Jun 6th 2024, 09:50
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On June 23, 1974, around 80,000 voters in the seven districts of the historic Jura decided whether they wanted to break away from the canton of Bern and form the canton of Jura. The Yes camp won with 52 percent of the vote and a turnout of almost 90 percent. The Jura became an independent canton on January 1, 1979.
The vote was thoroughly prepared in both camps. Both have conducted an intensive voting campaign. The last few days have been very emotional. The media were very present in Delsberg and nobody dared to make a prediction.
The weather was rainy on this Sunday afternoon. As the day progressed, tension rose in the hall of Delsberg Castle, where the voting results were counted. At 3 p.m., the No camp had a lead of 9,000 votes. An hour later, it was still in the lead after five of the seven districts had been counted. In Moutier, the No camp won by a narrow margin of 2194 to 2124 votes.
Forecasts had assumed a rejection in the entire historic Jura, but a yes vote in the three northern districts of Delsberg, Pruntrut and Franches-Montagnes. The tide turned with the narrow rejection in Moutier and a clear Yes majority in Delsberg. The ballots in favor of the creation of a 26th canton came to the fore.
Only the result for the district of Pruntrut was still missing, but victory was within reach for the separatists. An hour later, at 5.30 p.m., the poet Pablo Cuttat, President of the Voting Office, announced the result for the town of Pruntrut, which further increased the lead of the Yes votes. The final results were published at 6.30 pm: the result of the vote was 36,802 votes to 34,057 in favor of a new canton.
"It's raining freedom"
Despite the rainy weather, there was jubilation in the streets of Delsberg, as photos and films from the archive show. In front of thousands of people, Roger Schaffter, Vice-President of the Rassemblement jurassien (RJ), said the sentence on the steps of the town hall that would go down in the collective memory: "It can rain all night, it's raining freedom."
The square was full of umbrellas and Jura flags. The crowd chanted: "This is just the beginning, let's continue the fight."
"Et bien voilà, le Jura est libre," declared Roland Béguelin, Secretary General of the RJ. "On the evening of this memorable day, we proclaim the Republic and the Canton of Jura." The church bells rang out.
The opposing camp resisted being labeled as losers and emphasized that they had won in four districts. "We never lured people to our side with fairs and games. We were perhaps content with somewhat harsh speeches - and these are not designed to attract the people," explained Geneviève Aubry, a symbolic figure of the anti-separatist struggle, in Saint-Imier when the results were announced.
Dilemma of the separatists
During the campaign, the separatists of the RJ were hesitant. Although the voting process introduced by the canton of Bern offered them independence, it could also lead to a division of the historic Jura. Indeed, it seemed certain that the majority of the south of the region would opt to remain Bernese.
The vote was able to take place because the canton of Bern had adopted a constitutional amendment in March 1970. This provision provided for plebiscites in stages, i.e. first at the level of the seven districts, then in the districts that rejected the result and finally in the neighboring municipalities.
This constitutional amendment forced the Rassemblement jurassien to make a choice between freedom and unity. The sub-plebiscites in 1975 led to a break-up of the historic Jura, as the districts of Courtelary, La Neuveville and Moutier decided to remain Bernese. The Laufental joined the canton of Basel-Landschaft. The seven districts of the historic Jura had been annexed to the canton of Bern at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
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