The Federal Constitution is the highest level of Swiss law.
If a Swiss citizen wants to change the constitution, he or she can launch an initiative. 100,000 people who are eligible to vote in Switzerland must support the initiative with their signatures for it to be put to a vote.
An initiative can be used to propose that new articles be added to the Constitution or that existing articles be amended.
No initiative to amend federal laws
A federal popular initiative concerns only the Constitution. In contrast to the position in some cantons, there is no procedure at federal level for amending existing laws or introducing new laws through an initiative.
A direct democratic instrument
In other democracies, the people control the constitution indirectly, for example by electing the parliament, which has the power to amend the constitution. In Switzerland, the people and the cantons vote on all constitutional amendments. 100,000 voters can even propose changes themselves through an initiative. That is why the initiative is an important instrument of direct democracy.
For an initiative to come to fruition, it must be signed by 100,000 voters within 18 months. The initiative will then be put to a vote, unless the initiative committee withdraws it. If a majority of voters and a majority of the cantons vote in favour of the initiative, the Constitution will be amended.
The following diagram shows all the stages of a federal initiative, from the idea to implementation.
How do you launch a popular initiative?
Here you will learn in eight steps how to launch a federal popular initiative and what to look out for.
Who can launch a popular initiative?
The first thing you need to do is form a committee. The initiative committee must have at least 7 and no more than 27 members, who each must be eligible to vote in Switzerland. Swiss citizens living abroad who are eligible to vote can also be members of the committee.
Register the initiative
Next, inform the Federal Chancellery about the planned initiative. It will give you all the information on how to proceed. The Federal Chancellery will also provide you with support in meeting the formal and legal requirements.
Federal Chancellery
Political Rights Section
Bundeshaus West
3003 Bern
Tel. +41 58 462 48 02
spr@bk.admin.ch
Write the initiative text
You can either formulate the initiative as a general proposal or submit a draft of the constitutional text to the Federal Chancellery. The Federal Chancellery will arrange for the text to be translated into the official Swiss languages.
Keep the following in mind: the proposal in the initiative must not lead to any violation of binding international law, e.g. the ban on torture or slavery. In addition, the initiative must not cover several matters that are unrelated to each other; the law talks of ‹cohesion of subject matter›.
Parliament may declare the initiative invalid if these requirements are not met.
Creating a signature form
Next, prepare a signature form. The form must contain the title and text of the initiative and the names and addresses of all the committee members. The date on which the collection period begins and certain other details must also be provided.
The Federal Chancellery checks the validity of the signature forms.
Collecting signatures
As soon as the initiative has been published in the Federal Gazette, you can start collecting signatures. You have 18 months to collect at least 100,000 signatures, have them certified and submit them to the Federal Chancellery.
In order to be sure that the initiative is put to a vote, you should collect more than 100,000 signatures. Experience has shown that there are always some signatures that are invalid.
Anyone with the right to vote in Switzerland can sign. This also includes Swiss voters who live abroad.
The following applies to anyone who signs the form:
You must enter your first name and surname by hand and then sign the form. You must also provide your date of birth and address.
You must also indicate the canton and commune where you are eligible to vote. It is important that a separate signature form is used for each commune. This is because the signatures on the forms are subsequently checked by the communes.
Signature certification
Before you submit the signatures to the Federal Chancellery, you must have them checked by the communes. The communes must certify that the signatures are valid.
The communes check whether the persons who have signed the form are entered in the electoral register and whether anyone has signed more than once.
Certifying all the signatures takes time. As a consequence, you should send the signature forms to the communes on an ongoing basis during the collection period.
Submitting the initiative
After 18 months at the latest, you must submit the certified signatures to the Federal Chancellery. You will find all the information you need on submitting the signature lists in the related factsheet.
The Federal Chancellery also checks the signatures submitted while it is counting them. If at least 100,000 valid signatures have been submitted, then the initiative will be put to a vote.
Voting
It may be years after the signatures have been submitted before the vote is held, as the Federal Council and Parliament have to deliberate on the initiative. In some cases, they also draw up an alternative to the initiative.
The Federal Council must announce the date of the vote at least four months in advance.
If a majority of voters and a majority of the cantons vote in favour of the initiative, then the Constitution will be amended.
Any person who is entitled to vote in Switzerland can sign a federal initiative.
Swiss citizens living abroad who are entitled to vote can also sign an initiative. To do so, they must register with the Swiss representation responsible for them.
Read the rules that should be observed when signing the form to ensure that your signature is valid.
If an initiative is to be put to a vote (i.e. if 100,000 valid signatures have been collected for it in 18 months), then a vote will be held on the initiative unless the initiative committee withdraws it. However, the Federal Council and Parliament can propose alternatives to the popular initiative. Parliament has the final say in this. There are two variants for these alternatives.
The direct counter-proposal
With a direct counter-proposal, Parliament proposes a different constitutional article in response to the initiative. The committee can then withdraw its initiative. If it does, only the direct counter-proposal will be voted on.
If the committee does not withdraw its initiative, the electorate has to vote on whether they prefer either the initiative or the direct counter-proposal or both the initiative and the direct counter-proposal to the existing law. If they prefer both, voters must also indicate whether they prefer the initiative or the indirect counter-proposal. This run-off question will be the deciding factor if the majority of voters and the cantons say yes to both the initiative and the direct counter-proposal.
The indirect counter-proposal
With an indirect counter-proposal, Parliament proposes an amendment to the law or a new law in response to the initiative. In this way, Parliament can respond to specific concerns expressed in the initiative without having to amend the Constitution.
Two conditions must be met for an indirect counter-proposal to be accepted:
The initiative is no longer on the table because the committee has withdrawn it or the electorate has rejected it.
No one successfully calls for a referendum on the indirect counter-proposal or voters accept the indirect counter-proposal in the referendum.
Because the initiative committee does not know whether the indirect counter-proposal will actually come into force, it can also withdraw its initiative conditionally. This means that the initiative can be put to the vote after all if the indirect counter-proposal is rejected. More information on indirect counter-proposals can be found on the Parliament website.
Initiatives are not only possible at federal level. Voters can also launch an initiative in their canton or commune.
In some cantons, citizens can use an initiative not only to demand changes to the cantonal constitution, but also to amend or introduce a new cantonal law (a legislative initiative). This option is not available at federal level.
Popular initiatives - Information from the Federal Chancellery (web page available in German, French and Italian)
List of current and previous popular initiatives (web page available in German, French and Italian)
Popular initiatives - Information from Parliament (web page available in German, French and Italian)