Ten referendums were held in Switzerland during 2008. The first two were held on 24 February on business tax reform and aircraft noise. A further three were held on 1 June on public information campaigns, naturalisation and health reform. The final five were held on 30 November on legalising cannabis, making the pension age flexible, restricting the right of appeal of associations against construction projects, amending the constitutional article on narcotics and eliminating the statute of limitations with respect to pornographic crimes against children.
February referendums
The two February questions were held on: A facultative referendum on the business tax reform II – A coalition of parties and organisations (including the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions, the Green Party of Switzerland, the Evangelical People's Party of Switzerland, the Christian Social Party, the Swiss Labour Party, ATTAC Switzerland, Travail.Suisse) collected about 65,000 signatures by early July 2007, thus meeting the required number of signatures for a facultative referendum.
A people's initiative against fighter aircraft noise in tourism areas – seeking to forbid training flights of fighter aircraft over tourism areas in times of peace.
June referendums
The three referendums in June were held on: people's initiative against publicly funded information campaigns by the government, also known as the "muzzle initiative"; people's initiative for democratic naturalisation, which was trying to retain the right of deciding on the naturalisation of foreign citizens through a vote at municipal level; counterproposal to the withdrawn people's initiative on the Krankenversicherungsgesetz.
All three questions were rejected in the referendum. The most controversial initiative was the proposal to allow local communities to hold popular votes on the naturalisation of foreigners with no right of appeal.
Naturalisation
Switzerland has one of the largest number of foreign residents in Europe with foreigners making up over 20% of residents. In order to gain citizenship people must have lived in Switzerland for 12 years and have passed tests on the language and culture of Switzerland. In July 2003 the Swiss Supreme court blocked the holding of popular votes by local communities to decide on the naturalisation of immigrants who live in that community. The Supreme Court acted after a vote in Emmen in which eight Italians were approved but 48 Eastern European and Turkish candidates were rejected. The court ruled that they had been discriminated against on religious and ethnic grounds and said that all applicants had the right to know the reason for rejection.
The Swiss People's Party (SVP) brought an initiative forward to permit such popular votes to take place.
During the campaign on naturalisation votes the SVP sent literature out detailing crimes committed by people who had been granted citizenship. They also produced billboards showing black, brown and white hands reaching for Swiss passports and saying "Stop the Mass Naturalizations". They argued the measure was needed due an eightfold increase in naturalisations between 1991 and 2006.
The government and the four other main political parties opposed the naturalisation referendum and preferred the existing system where elected bodies took the decision and where there is a right to appeal. In May 2008 a group of 72 professors of constitutional law produced newspaper adverts urging people to reject the measure. Opponents argued that the measure was unconstitutional and violated international law.
A poll on the referendum in April showed support for the measure but another in May showed only 33% supporting the measure, 56% against and 11% undecided.
In order for the initiative to pass a majority of Swiss cantons would have had to support it as well as a majority of voters. In the end only one of the 26 cantons, Schwyz, supported the initiative. Some cantons, such as Geneva and Vaud, had up to 82% of voters against the measure.
Internal disputes within the People's Party and the lack of a clear message in favour of the proposal were seen as reasons for the defeat of the measure. The government welcomed the results of the referendum saying that they showed people had confidence in the authorities.