It’s likely you’ve been seeing the flags encouraging you to “vote yes! for responsible multinational companies” all over balconies for months in Geneva.
On the 29th of November the initiative for responsible businesses is to be considered. This initiative that the government is adverse to is asking for Swiss businesses to be held accountable for any damage to the environment and human rights violations caused by their subsidiary companies.
Started by two ex representatives of the free democratic party, it is backed by 130 various different organisations including WWF, Greenpeace, amnesty international, and UNICEF. According to a survey from Tamedia, 57% of the Swiss population have the intention of voting yes in support of this initiative.
Politically, the results are skewed towards the left wing with 91% of the green party, 84% of the socialist party, and 58% of the green liberals for as opposed to 36% of the democratic Christian party, 20% of the democratic centre, and surprisingly only 14% of the free democratic party.
By canton, the French speaking regions report to be 59% for this initiative to 56% from the German speaking regions and 55% from the Italian speaking regions against. Unsurprisingly, the French speaking Swiss vote more left wing than the Germanics, according to Cristina Baggina, director of the French-Swiss Economiesuisse.
Interestingly, by gender, 56% of women surveyed were for the initiative in contrast to only 35% of men.
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