Referendum | The Swiss vote in favor of the COVID-19 passport

(Geneva) In the midst of the fifth wave, the Swiss broadly approved on Sunday the law that made it possible to create the COVID-19 passport, at the end of a stormy election campaign, causing the police to fear new demonstrations during the day.

According to the first numerical projections of the polling institute gfs.bern, the law was accepted by 63%, with a margin of error of 3 points.

This referendum, which had been launched by the antipassports, comes as the new Omicron variant detected by South Africa and described as “worrying” by the World Health Organization, has plunged the planet back into a state of alert.

A sign of unusual tensions in Switzerland, the police have erected a fence in front of the seat of government and parliament in Bern, in anticipation of protests during the day.

The campaign was marked by numerous demonstrations, sometimes banned and punctuated by violence, but far from scenes of riots such as those which took place in the Netherlands or the French West Indies.

But the rise of tensions in Switzerland, a country renowned for its culture of dialogue and compromise and where referendums are organized several times a year in a peaceful atmosphere, had the effect of an electric shock.

Call for vaccination

Many politicians, including Health Minister Alain Berset, who for two years has come to embody the fight against COVID-19 in the Alpine country, have been threatened with death and are now placed under police protection.

The Swiss also said 61% Yes to a popular initiative on nursing care which calls on the Confederation to guarantee “appropriate remuneration” for care services. A majority of the cantons must also approve for it to pass.

These two votes come as Switzerland, like other countries, has experienced an outbreak of infections since mid-October.

But unlike other countries in the same case, the government has so far refused to toughen national control measures, arguing that the occupancy of intensive care beds by COVID-19 patients is relatively low. to date (20%).

“The situation is for the moment under control”, declared Wednesday Mr. Berset, in a press conference, while calling on the cantons to take measures and the population to respect basic health measures.

As the new Omicron variant spreads, the President of the Confederation Guy Parmelin has however launched a new call for vaccination in Sunday newspapers.

However, a majority of the Swiss population seems to want stronger measures. According to a poll in the SonntagsBlick, nearly two-thirds of those polled want only those who are vaccinated or cured to be able to live without restriction and just over half of them would favor compulsory vaccination.

With a rate of fully vaccinated people of around 65%, Switzerland lags behind in vaccination coverage compared to other countries in Western Europe.

“Sanitary apartheid”

This is the second time in less than six months that the population has been called upon to vote on the COVID-19 law. In June, citizens supported it with 60% of the vote in a first referendum.

But the law having been amended to give more latitude to the authorities to fight the pandemic and allow the establishment of the COVID-19 certificate, the antipassports had launched a second referendum.

The passport creates a “health apartheid”, denounce the Friends of the Constitution, one of the groups behind the referendum.

All political movements, with the exception of the right-wing populist UDC, the country’s largest party, called for support for the law.

The government had argued that the certificate facilitates travel and stays abroad, allows events to be held and is “available to everyone” because unvaccinated people who have not had the virus can be test.