52% of the eligible population voted for yesterday referendums, and if proof was needed that every vote counts only 32 319 votes made the difference between the vote requiring women to work until the age of 65 being passed or not. The vote was passed by a majority of 50.6%. Women and men now have to both work until the age of 65 to receive their full pension, but there still remains a disparity of over 30% between what a man’s pension is and a woman’s.
VAT will go up by 0.4% to 8.1% in order to help the pension system survive. The referendum on the scrapping of the anticipatory tax on bonds was rejected by 52% of the voters as was the referendum calling on the improvement of the lives of factory animals (by 62.9%).
In local referendums it was a no to co-financing the Swiss Guards new home in the Vatican. This came as a surprise to the town and parliament who had already approved the spending of CHf 400 000.-. The rejection is being read as a desire to further separate state and church, and showing that the Catholic church is losing its grip on the local population.
The ambitious climate strategy put forward by the town to reach CO2 neutrality by 2040 was approved by 61% of voters. This means that anyone building or renovating will need to put solar panels up and any home owner willing to install solar panels will receive money from the town to do so. It will no longer be possible to install oil or gas heaters in new buildings and there will also be money to help insolate properties. 50% of all parking places downtown will be eliminated in the next decade.
In an effort to save electricity most shopping malls in the cantons of Zug and Lucerne have agreed to not put Christmas lights up. Instead more traditional energy friendly decorations will be used.
The rising cost of energy is also going to affect ski resort who feel that they have no choice but to raise the price of their day passes by roughly 5%.
It’s going to be grey, rainy and colder this week with temperatures remaining in the low teens.
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