How important is it?
The bilateral II would have failed on a single canton: how important is the team?
The contracts for Schengen and Dublin would have failed: 3050 Urner had overruled a quarter of a million supporters at the federal level.
Is the simple people more enough to accept the new bilateral contracts with the EU, the optional referendum? Or is it also needed by the majority of the cantons, the mandatory referendum?
These questions are currently causing violent discussions, because they are perceived as strategically important: Whoever is against the new bilateral contracts demands the mandatory referendum – the highest possible hurdle as possible. The EU-friendly circles, which is sufficient, also argue legally. They want to dribble the cantons.
Against this background, it is worth taking a look back. Over half a dozen times, Switzerland has coordinated questions over the past 25 years with a more or less strong reference to EU policy. The state was only necessary for initiatives. Nevertheless, it is interesting how the cantons voted in referenders. It shows that mostly they decided like the people.
In May 2000, 21 stands said about bilateral I including the free movement of people; These include the former half -cantons that only have half a voice. Schwyz and Ticino alone rejected. When the free movement of people was extended to the new EU countries in Eastern Europe in 2005, the people agreed with 56 percent. Only five and a half stands said no. In 2009, the people were 59.6 percent for the unlimited continuation of the free movement of people with expansion to Romania and Bulgaria. Just innerrhoden, Glarus, Schwyz and Ticino rejected, which are 3.5 stand votes. In all of these cases, the question of whether optional or mandatory referendum did not matter.
In one case, however, the result would have come out differently if the state would have counted. In the bilateral II, the contracts of Schengen and Dublin for asylum and police cooperation with the EU, on June 5, 2005. It was a optional referendum, which is why the Volks-Ja of 54.6 percent was sufficient. But twelve rejected the template from the stands, and only eleven agreed. The two contracts would have been rejected with an obligatory referendum – because of a single stand.
What does that mean in numbers? For example, in Uri, 8285 people voted no, 5235 said yes to Schengen/Dublin. The no of this canton was the overhang of 3050 no votes. For comparison: National at the time, 1,477,260 voters with yes, 1,227’042 the bilateral II rejected. 250,218 were more than opponents, good a quarter of a million. And yet around 3000 urns had tipped the result at the federal level.
