Book contents
7 - Identity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2015
Summary
On 26 November 1989, 68.6% of Swiss voters turned out to decide if the Swiss army ought to be abolished immediately. To the astonishment of the entire country, 35.6% said ‘Yes’. Nobody, not even the organisers of the initiative, the Socialist Youth of Switzerland, could believe the figures. The members of the government, the officer corps and the establishment in its broadest sense were stunned. Divisionär (ret.) Gustav Däniker, Switzerland's most distinguished ‘defence intellectual’, took part in the campaign from the start and defended the army at the first mass meeting in January 1989. From the beginning, he noticed ‘a completely different atmosphere’. The participants were different and so was the tone. There was none of the hatred which poisoned public debate during Vietnam protests or the peace campaigns of the 1970s. Thoughtful people showed up to listen and discuss.
The army leadership had publicly declared that a 75% ‘No’ vote was the minimum that it would regard as an acceptable outcome. In the event, only Uri, William Tell's home canton, rose to the army's call. Of the Urner, 76.1% voted ‘No’, followed by Obwalden with 74.4% and Appenzell Inner-Rhoden with 74.1%. The two Basels and Neuchâtel had ‘No’ votes of under 60% and Jura and Geneva under 50%.
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- Why Switzerland? , pp. 234 - 253Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996