On March 3rd, the Swiss electorate will vote on the popular initiative for a 13th AHV pension and the popular initiative for secure and sustainable retirement provision – the pension initiative. The Department Année politique Suisse from the University of Bern analyzed the advertisements and newspaper articles about the votes. For the first time, it becomes transparent how such campaigns are financed. Political scientist Marc Bühlmann is the author of this study and explains it.
SRF News: Who will spend how much money in this vote?
Marc Bühlmann: The Federal Audit Office has reported the budgets. The no camp against the 13th AHV pension has the most money. It shows 3.5 million francs. The supporters, especially the unions, have a budget of around 2.3 million. There is far less in the pension initiative. Here the proponent camp – mainly business associations and the young FDP – disclosed around 900,000 francs. The opposition – here too it is the unions – has around 125,000 francs.
How exactly is the money used in the advertisements?
We can’t say that exactly. We don’t know how the newspapers might give discounts to the various players. But we can count the number of advertisements and see that those opposed to the 13th pension place more advertisements than those in favor of it. And on the other hand, it is the pension initiative that receives slightly more advertisements from supporters than from opponents.
It is the first time that such financing has been disclosed in Switzerland. Are there any surprises for you?
No. As a rule, when business associations get involved in voting campaigns, they have more money than left-wing or trade unions. But in contrast to parties, left-wing associations, i.e. unions, also have a relatively high campaign budget.
What is perhaps a bit surprising is that the pension initiative only receives fairly weak financial support and that the opposition is also pumping relatively little money into the campaign. This is also reflected in the media reporting, where there is much more discussion about the 13th AHV pension than about the pension initiative.
The idea behind it was that citizens could find out who is funding a bill before voting.
What conclusions do you draw from the first financially transparent advertising campaigns for referendums?
The idea behind it was that citizens could find out who is financing these campaigns before voting. One could assume that these camps would look something like this. In this respect, this is not surprising. But I could imagine that the final bill will have to be presented after the vote. Ahead of other votes, this new law could well lead to interesting observations.
The interview was conducted by Nicolà Bär.