The chief of Swiss diplomacy defends the choice of the Federal Council of an optional referendum on future agreements with the European Union. Ignazio Cassis fears that a double majority requirement creates a precedent for other international treaties.
03.05.2025, 13:3003.05.2025, 13:30
Ignazio Cassis calls for not being guided by emotions at the time of defining the terms of the vote on the agreements with the European Union (EU). He defended on Saturday on the radio SRF The choice of the Federal Council to subject them to the optional, and not compulsory referendum.
For the Minister of Foreign Affairs, questioned in the program “Rundschau”, it is necessary to properly apply the constitutional law.
If the modality of the compulsory referendum was retained, Cassis fears a domino effect: claims for a double majority could also be born on other files such as free trade agreements with China and with Latin American states.
As soon as a political decision becomes a simple emotional calculation, “anyone will be able to impose their demands,” he warned, stressing that the Federal Council remained the guarantor of respect for the Constitution.
Asked about the apparent divisions within his own party, the PLR, Cassis rejected criticism: “What you call division, I call it diversity of opinions. It is the very essence of democracy ”he reacted, in reference to the press information according to which the president of the Confederation Karin Keller-Sutter would have pleaded for a compulsory referendum.
The Federal Council spoke on Wednesday in favor of an optional referendum on the agreements with the EU. But Parliament will have the last word on the terms of the vote. (Tib/ATS)
More weather articles in Switzerland
The branches directional on the edge is from the jungfrau
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The branches directional on the edge is from the jungfrau
During the summer of 1948, two employees of the PTT team carried radio broadcasting equipment on the Crête de la Jungfrau.
Source: Communication Museum, FFF_73025
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