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Cash in hand: five-cent coins made by Swissmint, pictured in 2013. <\/p>\n
Rolf Neeser \/ Keystone <\/p>\n
With people worldwide concerned about a possible decline of cash, Sunday\u2019s vote could be seen as a signal, says an internationally renowned advocate. But conspiracy theories are never far away from cash, as an analysis with sociological perspectives explains.\n<\/p>\n
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March 8, 2026 – 18:38\n<\/p>\n
With Sunday\u2019s national vote, Switzerland has enshrined the preservation of cash in its federal constitution. The official information booklet for the vote, provided by the government, stated that this shift would have no impact on everyday life \u2013 nor involve any new tasks or costs.<\/p>\n
However, on a symbolic level at least, many people seem to value the fact that cash is now explicitly anchored at constitutional level and not just in normal law \u2013 and this includes people outside Switzerland.<\/p>\n
An important signal to the world<\/p>\n
South African anthropologist and activist Brett Scott told Swissinfo before the vote that it would be an \u201cimportant moment of signalling to the rest of the world\u201d if Switzerland were to enshrine cash in its constitution. Banks have promoted digital payments for decades, Scott points out. In this context, he adds, it is important when a country takes a clear position that it wants to protect cash.<\/p>\n
Scott, who advocates in his books for the preservation of physical money, lists many reasons why cash is important to people. \u201cSome are specific to cash payments, others are more generally about digital society,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
For example, Scott explains, elderly people and people with disabilities or visual impairments depend on cash, as do people with less money, since it\u2019s easier to keep to a tight budget with cash. On top of this, \u201cpeople with low incomes often don\u2019t trust the banking sector; middle-class people, on the other hand, tend to trust in institutions,\u201d he says. And in general, many people have a \u201cnostalgic attachment\u201d to cash.<\/p>\n
Support from various backgrounds<\/p>\n
At the societal level, cash supporters can have very different backgrounds. Scott mentions national security experts, for example, who worry about the \u201cserious security threat\u201d when people don\u2019t have access to cash. Equally critical are \u201clibertarian communities concerned about surveillance by digital systems\u201d, people who are against Big Tech or the financial industry, or those who want to maintain an offline life.<\/p>\n
But many also value cash for its \u201cinformal economy element\u201d, says Scott. \u201cLots of people like to preserve an informal sphere for themselves \u2013 they don\u2019t want institutions between themselves and their life.\u201d Collection plates in church or poker games at home would be strange without cash, Scott adds. Who wants to use a Visa card in church?<\/p>\n
It is not expected that the vote on Sunday will slow down the declining importance of notes and coins in everyday life in Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Cash from a need for control<\/p>\n
The importance of cash in many people\u2019s lives also becomes clear when talking with Swiss sociologist Nadine Frei, who wrote a dissertation on the everyday understanding of money. \u201cIn interviews, I often encountered the notion that \u2018only cash is real\u2019 \u2013 cash is seen as real money in contrast to digital money, to which a certain artificiality is attached,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Frei thinks this is connected to a need for control. \u201cMoney is attributed a seductive power that needs to be resisted and controlled,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen it\u2019s tangible, it\u2019s viewed with a certain control.\u201d People don\u2019t want to get into debt or spend money on unnecessary things, and many imagine that they can control this better with cash, Frei explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cDigital money is associated both with a certain abstraction and an immediacy,\u201d says Frei.<\/p>\n
For her, criticism about how digital methods of payments can socially exclude certain groups is often legitimate \u2013 yet she also raises proximities to conspiratorial thinking.<\/p>\n
Read about how Switzerland compares to its neighbours in Europe when it comes to dropping \u2013 or preserving \u2013 cash:<\/p>\n
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Swiss Politics\n <\/p>\n
Swiss are going cashless despite attachment to paper money <\/p>\n
This content was published on <\/p>\n
Feb 18, 2026 <\/p>\n
Switzerland is advanced in the digitalisation of transactions compared with other countries, but cash is still seen as an indispensable safe haven. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Read more: Swiss are going cashless despite attachment to paper money From pandemic to cash<\/p>\n Indeed, conspiracy theories often hover around cash. Scott, for instance, saw during the Covid-19 pandemic how his viewpoints ended up in an online video outlining a conspiracy theory about vaccinations and secret microchips.<\/p>\n Frei, who researched the circles of those opposed to health measures in Switzerland during the pandemic, says that \u201cconspiracy narratives dock relatively well onto abstract and invisible processes \u2013 as well as onto the abstraction that the financial world involves\u201d. For Frei, conspiracy thinking is characterised by an assumption that certain groups act in secret to steer the course of events. \u201cThis notion was evident not only in the coronavirus protests, but also in other areas,\u201d Frei explains.<\/p>\n Criticism of the cash campaign\u2019s connections<\/p>\n On Sunday, Swiss citizens voted on two separate questions about cash. The \u201cCash is freedom\u201d initiative, a people\u2019s initiative launched by citizens, did not convince a majority. A clear majority did however vote for a parliamentary counterproposal, which emphasised the mandate of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in ensuring cash supply.<\/p>\n The \u201cCash is freedom\u201d initiative was launched by the same milieu as the \u201cStop compulsory vaccination<\/a>\u201d initiative, which was rejected by just under three-quarters of voters in 2024.<\/p>\n Before the cash vote, Swiss journalist Dennis B\u00fchler researched in the Republik magazineExternal link<\/a> how closely the group around the initiative were connected to various conspiracy narratives, including about the pandemic. In the same article, he argued that in terms of content it was \u201cmore or less irrelevant\u201d whether people voted \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno\u201d.<\/p>\n Asked further by Swissinfo, B\u00fchler explains that he sees no signs \u201cthat Swiss politics and\/or the SNB want to abolish cash or even to reduce its importance\u201d. B\u00fchler also doesn\u2019t believe that anchoring cash in the constitution could help to \u201cappease conspiracy-minded circles\u201d.<\/p>\n No answers from the initiators<\/p>\n Swissinfo sent questions to the \u201cCash is freedom initiative\u201d committee about their concerns and their view, which so far have remained unanswered.<\/p>\n Swissinfo also explicitly asked them for their response to the accusations by B\u00fchler, who wrote in Republik that, among other things, it was \u201cnot the first initiative with which these circles sow doubt and discord\u201d. The \u201cStop compulsory vaccination\u201d initiative previously insinuated that \u201cthere is a plan to transplant microchips under people\u2019s skin against their will\u201d, he wrote.<\/p>\n
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