Referendum in Switzerland could end government-imposed Covid restrictions
Switzerland will hold a referendum that could stop the government from imposing lockdown measures. The country has not introduced a lockdown like many other European countries, but has instead - like Sweden - mainly emphasized personal responsibility. In terms of the spread of infection and the number of deaths, it is about the same as in Sweden.
Published: January 19, 2021, 1:31 pm
Recently, however, the Swiss government introduced tougher measures to stop the spread of infection, leading to an increasingly intense debate on the state’s rights to pursue policies that infringe on personal freedom.
The organization Friends of the Constitution has collected 86 000 signatures and thus achieved the requirement (50 000) to bring about a referendum, which aims to tear up the government’s Covid-19 law that was introduced last year.
Switzerland is one of the world’s oldest democracies with far-reaching opportunities for direct democracy. Every year, several referendums are held at national level, and even more at cantonal and local levels.
The referendum will however not take place until June this year at the earliest the Business Insider reported.
In Switzerland, stores which sell goods deemed as “non-essential” by the Federal Council had to close their doors on Monday. Thus Swiss residents, unable to buy “non-essential” products in Switzerland, have been heading to France to shop. New Swiss Covid rules are also confusing: Items such as perfumes, cosmetics, kitchen utensils, tableware, envelopes, house plants and flowers, photo equipment, and gardening tools are also classified by the government as essential goods, but light bulbs and electronics are not.
“Retail tourism” from Switzerland is not a new phenomenon, as prices are cheaper in France, but according to Tribune de Genève (TDG), the new rush across the border is not driven by frugality.
“I’m looking for snowshoes. Usually, I would have shopped in Switzerland, but now I don’t have a choice”, a customer from Geneva, told the newspaper. “I’m not used to shopping in France. I even had to put my GPS on to find the store because I had never been here before.”
French retailers expected an even greater number of Swiss customers over the weekend, even though the new French curfew rules do not allow shopping after 6pm. “At the end of the week, we expect the Swiss crush,” one French retailer admitted. And even though France now requires people from outside the EU to present a negative coronavirus test upon entry, Swiss citizens are excluded from this obligation, making a mockery of the imposed confinement.
And while the Swiss are heading to France to shop, French government officials in the Haute-Savoie have accused private Swiss health clinics of poaching their essential healthcare workers.
Swiss daily Le Temps headlined the complaint with: “Geneva is pilfering our nurses”. Haute-Savoie’s deputy Martial Saddier said in an interview with the newspaper: “The behaviour of some hospital administrators in Switzerland is totally unacceptable in the context of the health crisis.”
Private clinics in Geneva have actively been recruiting nursing staff from Haute-Savoie, luring them with salaries at least two and a half times higher than those paid in the French region. Already 60 percent of nursing staff at Geneva’s university hospitals (HUG) live in France — but Saddier said such recruitment should not happen during the pandemic.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

Care prompts bishops to criticize transgender ideology
The Catholic bishops of the Scandinavian countries presented an open five-page letter criticizing transgender ideology on March 21, just before Easter. The document primarily expresses care and advice and was read aloud in Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the signatories of the document.

Brits Forced to Live in Darkness and Cold
Food prices are rising at a furious pace, fastest in Scotland in almost half a century. At the same time, energy prices are at record highs. People are forced to choose between freezing or going hungry, and a majority of Scots are forced to live in cold and darkness to cope with bills. Old generations' tricks for saving and keeping warm are returning. Nevertheless, it is feared that 10,000 Brits will die of cold homes this winter. We present the Swedish Public Health Agency's guidelines on indoor temperature. Governments in Europe are introducing rationing and monitoring of food purchases. Net-zero emissions are a lie that, in practice, de-industrializes the West and dramatically lowers our standard of living.

Thousands of Flemish farmers block roads in Brussels against nitrogen policy
BrusselsMore than 2500 farmers from Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region gathered at Brussels' central Arts-Loi street and blocked roads with tractors toward Brussels to protest the regional government's plan to limit nitrogen emissions.

Orban: EU energy sanctions costing citizens billions
BudapestHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that some western states could soon send troops to Ukraine. He also criticized the fact that the EU sanctions against Russia had cost Hungarian taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

Italy: New leader of the Social Democrats is one of Soros’ ‘preferred politicians’
RomeDuring the election campaign, Elly Schlein presented herself as the standard-bearer of the poorest. However, her background and previous work raise doubts about her honesty.

UK greenhouses shut down due to high energy costs
LondonIn Great Britain, a particularly depressing facet of the crisis is now showing its first contours - and thus anticipating what is likely to happen in other European countries in the near future: because of the exploding energy prices, agriculture is being strangled and fresh produce has to be rationed.

Lisbon opens borders to all Portuguese speakers
LisbonNot only the German and Italian governments keep opening new paths for immigration. Portugal, too, has opened a Pandora's box and is paving the way for possibly millions of non-European immigrants to the EU – something which is not mentioned by the mainstream media.

Illegal immigration to Italy has reached its highest level ever
RomeIn Italy, despite the overwhelming right-wing electoral success in September, there is still nothing to be seen of the promised asylum turnaround – on the contrary. Giorgia Meloni has been in office for five months, but the arrivals of migrants in Italy have doubled compared to the previous year.

Dismantling diplomacy with ‘feminist foreign policy’
BudapestGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to counter German security issues abroad with feminist politics. Gender training, LGBTQ events and quotas are now part of their new guidelines, which are intended to bring about "cultural change". The German ambassador to Hungary, Julia Gross, provided an embarrassing example.

Germans demand investigation of Nord Stream sabotage
BerlinAfter the sensational revelations by US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh about the perpetrators of the Nord Stream attacks on September 26, 2022, the German government has remained silent. It does not want to comment on Hersh's research results, according to which the pipelines were blown up by Americans and Norwegians.