Originally Posted by
melmothtw
I've seen this said a few times, but as someone not familiar with the Swiss system can you explain why an F-35 purchase might go back to a vote while a Rafale/Eurofighter/Super Hornet purchase would (presumably) not? I thought the whole point of having the referendum before the selection was to avoid such an occurrence.
Apart from the
Referendum - which can be requested by 50'000 voters - there's the political instrument of the
Volks-Initiative: 100'000 voters can request a voting on
changing the constitution.
Obviously our Swiss constitution is not the ideal place to put a ban on a certain airplane (F-35, Rafale, Eurofighter ... you name it), but technically it would be feasible. All it needs is a group or a party collecting signatures of 100'000 registered voters, proposing a change of the consititution and reqesting to vote about it.
The Swiss referendum on new fighter planes did end up with 50.1 % "yes" only (check "Eidgenössische Abstimmung über die Beschaffung neuer Kampfflugzeuge" on Wikipedia for detailed results - I'm not allowed to post a direct link). Would it have been known that the Swiss government would be choosing the F-35, I'm pretty sure the referendum would have ended with a solid "no". Thus it's probable - but not sure - that somoene will start collecting signatures for a "Volks-Initiative" aimed at changing our constitution, specifically excluding the F-35 from being acquired. It's pretty sure that no one would bother doing this if the Rafale or the Eurofighter would have benn chosen.
To make things more complicated, such a change of our constitution has to be accepted not only by the majority of the voters (as with the Referndum), but by
a) the majority of the voters
and
b) the majority of the Cantons
Looking at the results of the initial Referendum (see link above) it's quite probable that the majority of the voters would vote against the F-35, but possible that the majority of Cantons will vote "pro F-35".
I hope this clarifies the issue, at least as far it is possible at the moment.
S