Geneva's voters say yes to school reform

Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss voters Sunday 17 May adopted biometric passports and a government proposal for insurance to cover, to a limited extent, complementary medicine costs. In cantonal and communal votes, Geneva’s citizens accepted their government’s proposal to reform the education system and they have voted to abolish citizen juries. In Vaud, a new commune has been created, Bourg-en-Lavaux, which embraces five villages.

Biometric passports given lukewarm support

The federal votes held no major  surprises, but the biometric passport passed with only a slim majority, 50.14 percent, and with one of the overall closest popular votes in 150 years, decided by 5,000 votes, reports Le Temps. The Swiss Confederation will now be able to deliver the new passport for 1 March 2010, a deadline set by the European Union as part of the Schengent Area agreements. Le Temps interprets the vote as sending a dual message to the government, that citizens want it to focus on greater data protection  but also that the support for Switzerland to belong to Schengen has now been clearly shown.

Chinese medicine and homeopathy not automatically covered

Complementary medicine insurance coverage passed with a far more comfortable majority, two-thirds of the vote and every canton in favour of it. French-speaking Switzerland was strongly behind the government proposal, a modified version of a popular initiative whose authors said they would drop it if the government vote passed. Vaud voted most heavily in favour, with Geneva close behind. TSR points out that voters should not rush to the conclusion that the complementary medical treatments taken off the basic insurance coverage list in 2005 will be automatically reinstated. These include traditional Chinese medicine and homeopathic treatments. The government’s proposal that passed says only that the federal and cantonal governments should provide for complementary medicine coverage, within their limits. Those limits have been under pressure from rising health care costs in recent years, with a four percent rise in 2008 alone.

Geneva’s education system takes tougher approach, 200 years of juries ends

Voters in Geneva accepted a government proposal to end the 200-year-old popular jury system, deemed incompatible with the penal system. Jurists have been obliged to be available during the week to review court files before a criminal process ended, which has caused problems, in particular for people who work during the week. The jury system has had strong backing, however, from legal groups and political parties who fought to maintain a system they say provides necessary transparency and is close links to the population.

The education system reform in Geneva sparked heated debate, with three proposals offered to voters, who ultimately rallied behind the government project, approving it by a 74.5 percent vote. It will replace a system created in 2001 that has had numerous critics. The popular initiative, also put to voters, called for more stringent measures, including personalized tutoring, a transition year for weak students at the end of year 6 and more clearly defined ability streams. The government rejected it as a sorting system rather than a reorientation. The new system will have three tiers, with the middle school or junior high level placing year 7 students in three groups depending on the results of tests at the end of their sixth year. For years 8 and 9 the students will opt for one of three paths: communications and technology, living languages and communication, literary-scientific. They will still be able to switch from one path to another at the start of years 8 and 9.

Geneva also voted for a tax reduction for small and medium-size businesses to bring cantonal tax laws into line with the federal system. Two of the key changes: a lighter tax burden when a company changes hands or closes down and the option to spread out tax payments when a company owner dies.

Vaud’s new commune

Five villages in Vaud have joined together to form an administrative commune in 2011 with a population of 5,000: Grandvaux, Cully, Epesses,  Villette and Riex. For 24 Heures, the vote serves as a test case for the rest of canton Vaud, which has remained virtually unchanged since the start of the 19th century. The newspaper suggests that this could be the start of a reduction in the number of administrative units, of which there are 375 today.

Federal results:

• complementary medicine, by canton
• biometric passport, by canton

Related:

Tribune de Geneve on the education vote

24 Heures on the new Vaud commune

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