Fri, Feb 10th 2023
Cash provides freedom, the FBS group says.
Switzerland will never become a cashless economy should Swiss voters choose to encode it into law on the next ballot.
The Mouvement Libertaire Suisse, also known as the Free Switzerland Movement or FBS, this week announced that more than 111,000 signatures – thousands more than necessary – have already been validated to trigger a voter referendum. Under Switzerland’s direct democracy system, the measure will become law should a majority of Swiss voters approve of the measure.
FBS says cash is playing a smaller and smaller role in many global economies as electronic payment methods become more routine. The digitalization of such transactions makes it easier for the state to monitor its citizens’ movements, according to the FBS.
The Swiss National Bank is the sole issuer of Swiss franc banknotes.
More than one-third of Europeans and Americans say they would happily go cashless, according to an Ipsos study. While the cashless trend was already on the rise in 2017, it was accelerated greatly by Covid-19 lockdowns.
The group wants a change made to Switzerland’s currency law, which oversees how the central bank and government manage the franc supply, that would stipulate that a “sufficient quantity” of banknotes and coins must remain in circulation. While voters can push the measure through, Swiss Parliament members would decide how the law would be implemented.
“It is clear that getting rid of cash not only touches on issues of transparency, simplicity or security … but also carries a huge danger of totalitarian surveillance,” FBS president Richard Koller communicated through the FBS website. Koller added that while Switzerland has a chance to encode this into law, getting the EU to approve something similar would entail the “almost impossible” process of securing approval from all 27 member states.
“Cash is freedom” which makes it “an absolute priority for Switzerland,” according to FBS.
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