A September vote could redefine how Switzerland responds to war, sanctions and international crises without abandoning the neutrality it has long defended.<\/p>\n
The Swiss government has opposed the introduction of strict neutrality, which proponents want to enshrine in the Constitution. The government\u2019s position was presented on August 11 by Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis.<\/p>\n
The initiative is backed by the right-wing conservative Swiss People\u2019s Party (SVP). It will be put to a nationwide referendum on September 27.<\/p>\n
The Swiss government does not oppose the principle of neutrality<\/p>\n
Ignazio Cassis emphasized that the issue is not about the country abandoning neutrality. According to him, Switzerland has followed this approach for more than 180 years, helping it protect its freedom, independence, and security.<\/p>\n
The referendum question is not: \u201cShould Switzerland remain neutral?\u201d There is no doubt about that. Switzerland was, is, and will remain neutral.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ignazio Cassis<\/p>\n
At the same time, the foreign minister believes that incorporating rigid neutrality rules into the Constitution would reduce the country\u2019s flexibility in responding to international crises and security challenges. In his view, Switzerland\u2019s foreign policy should be determined neither by Moscow, Brussels, nor Washington, nor by an overly restrictive constitutional provision.<\/p>\n
Sanctions against Russia and the limits of neutrality<\/p>\n
During a parliamentary session devoted to sanctions against Russia, Cassis disagreed with the claim that Switzerland\u2019s alignment with EU restrictions makes the country vulnerable. He stressed the need to clearly distinguish military decisions from non-military measures.<\/p>\n
Neutrality does not mean indifference. If someone breaks the rules, we must act.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Ignazio Cassis<\/p>\n
The proposed initiative would enshrine \u201cpermanent and armed\u201d neutrality in the Constitution. Cassis noted that after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the conflict remained geographically limited. By contrast, Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he said, forced Switzerland to seek a new balance between neutrality, security, and the protection of international rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A September vote could redefine how Switzerland responds to war, sanctions and international crises without abandoning the neutrality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1759,1202,2975,41,55686,55687,9384,55685,17,3065],"class_list":["post-114191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-ignazio-cassis","tag-news","tag-russia-sanctions","tag-swiss","tag-swiss-constitution","tag-swiss-foreign-policy","tag-swiss-neutrality","tag-swiss-neutrality-switzerland-referendum-ignazio-cassis-swiss-constitution-russia-sanctions-swiss-foreign-policy","tag-switzerland","tag-switzerland-referendum"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117077976659838157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}