In a referendum, Switzerland passed a pension reform | It states that women work until the age of 65 like men

The Swiss Controversial narrowly accepted state pension reform plan, who – which Raising the retirement age for womenA proposal to ban industrial farming was rejected in referendums held on Sunday.

The final results show the Swiss minimal support for the country’s pension reform project, the first in more than a quarter century.

Only 50.57% of Swiss agreed with the most controversial part of the reform, which states that women work until age 65 to receive a full pension, rather than being allowed to leave a year earlier than men, as is currently the case.

After two previous attempts, in 2004 and 2017, Bern won enough votes to “stabilize” the social security system for the elderly, at the risk of being overwhelmed by rising life expectancy and the arrival of the huge baby-boom generation into retirement.

The remaining measures, which also include an increase in value-added tax (VAT), were approved last year by Parliament, but Left parties and trade unions criticized that reform is taking place “at the expense of women”. They took the case to referendum, a possible measure under the Swiss direct democracy system.

In a separate vote and by a wider margin in favor of 55%, increased funding for the reform through a sales tax increase was approved on Sunday.

Advocates of the reform argued that it was reasonable to set the same retirement age for men and women, but the measure led to rejection.

In 2020, women in Switzerland earned pensions an average of 35% less than their male counterparts, according to the Economy Ministry. Critics of the measure point out that it is unfair to increase the retirement age without first solving this problem.

After learning the outcome of the consultation, the Socialist Party’s women’s group announced a demonstration in Bern on Monday, warning that the plan would drastically cut women’s pensions.

“Women’s pension income will fall by 7 billion Swiss francs ($7.1 billion) over the next 10 years: a slap in the face for all women,” the group said in a statement.

Sunday’s results were not broken down by gender, but did show a significant split between the different Swiss regions, with The German-speaking part is overwhelmingly supported It is clear that the French and Italian regions are against it.

factory cultivation

While that It was flatly refused With 63% of the vote against the initiative to ban intensive livestock farming that would have wiped out industrial farms in this country, which is still largely rural although agriculture does not weigh relatively in the national wealth.

The animal defense organizations that pushed this measure wanted to provide constitutional protections for farm animals such as cows, chickens, and pigs.

The proposal, backed by left-wing parties and environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, sought to impose minimum requirements for animal welfare, outdoor access and slaughter practices.

The government and parliament rejected the initiative, insisting that Switzerland already has one of the strictest animal welfare laws in the world.

Under the current law, farms can have no more than 1,500 fattening pigs, 27,000 chickens or 300 calves, which prevents them from having industrial farms like those in other countries.

Supporters of this initiative expressed their happiness at being able to raise the issue for political debate and awareness-raising.

“The whole of Switzerland has discussed the problems with our intensive farming and our meat consumption,” Vera Weber, director of the Franz Weber Foundation, told RTS. For us, this is a victory.

Turnout in Sunday’s polls was 52%, slightly higher than the usual 50% for this type of vote.