The Law Reforms Switzerland has at hand

May 19^thmarks a big day for Switzerland. It is the day that the country will decide on the tax and gun reforms by use of a national vote. Polls have been conducted to try and establish if the reforms would pass or fail.

The Swiss Parliament, the Swiss government and the major political parties in Switzerland joined hands to support the amendment on the gun law restrictions. They face huge opposition from the referendum committee. The committee is made up of groups like hunters in Switzerland, the Swiss gun lobby, the right-wing political party and gun smiths.

The supporters of the reforms on gun laws won the opinion polls with a margin of a little over 30% of the votes. The opinion polls research was carried out by the Gfs Bern institute. The national vote is expected to commence on May 19.

The gun reforms seek to be in line with the gun regulations of the European Union. The supporters fear that the membership of Switzerland in the Schengen border security will be at risk should they fail to amend the gun laws.

The opposing side on the other hand, argues that gun law reforms will disarm the entire country. The opposing argument states that disarmament is a breach of Swiss values. Furthermore, they believe that if the people lose their semi-automatic weapons, Switzerland will lose the war against terrorism.

The last survey compared to previous polls was carried out by the Gfs Bern. In the latter research, people seem to have a strong stand on the gun reforms whether in supporting or opposing the reforms. The supporters held strong and well organized campaigns on social media. Despite this factor, they still had huge support for the amendment.

A political scientist from Gfs Bern observed that the opposing side was on the losing side. This can be attributed to limited financial resources and the people's party accorded them a low profile support. Edward Weber, the political scientist, expects the amendment to pass without stiff competition. He identified the major supporters of the reforms as urban residents and women.

The Swiss Parliament also wishes to revamp the tax system on cooperates. Multinational cooperates will lose some of the fiscal advantages they currently enjoy. The polls once again were in favor of the supporting side.

Gfs Bern's research showed no signs of the opposing side gaining advantage. Lukas Golder, the institute's co director who is also a political scientist, identified that both parties carried out moderated campaigns. As a result, the people were not involved in intense debates over the corporate reforms.

The opposition consisting of the People's party, the trade unions and Greens unions failed to sway the people's opinion as reflected in the polls. As a result, the people's party took a softer stand in opposing the reforms and would not explain what made them arrive at this decision.

Golder thinks the opposing side may have had a chance if they had argued that the reforms link two issues that are unrelated which makes them undemocratic.

The final poll interviewed supporters and they argued that failure of the amendments would jeopardize the Competitive advantage currently held by Switzerland. What's more, they feared that the old pension system would be prone to collapse if it lacks the promised financial boost of CHF2 billion.

5,817 Swiss citizens took part in the poll. Online responses and telephone interviews were carried out between April 23rdand April 30thto conduct a survey of the polls. Gfs Bern institute allowed a margin error of 2.7%. The Swiss broadcasting corporation commissioned the polls.



Source: https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/vote-may-19--2019_gun...

Legal disclaimer. This article does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. The article should be used for informational purposes only.