Vaud: The “SOS Communes” committee withdraws its initiative

The “SOS Communes” committee has decided to withdraw its popular initiative, it announced in a press briefing on Thursday morning in Nyon. Defying predictions, the text had collected more than 13,000 signatures three years ago. Its content is clear: that the canton financially assumes the entire social bill, which increasingly weighs on the municipalities.

If the initiators throw in the towel, it is because the new intercommunal equalization (NPIV)conceived as a counter-project, united the municipal umbrella organizations and the deputies behind it. They approved it by a large majority at the beginning of June. “We have to be pragmatic, win in the vote, it was mission impossible,” explains PLR deputy Pierre-André Romanens, co-president of the “SOS Communes” committee. The political pressure of their request nevertheless made it possible, they argue, to unblock the situation.

“When we launch an initiative, it is with the aim of making things happen,” continues the former mayor of Coppet. “In the canton of Vaud, we don’t change things by turning the tables. Our revolutions are carried out gently and peacefully.”

Divergent assessments

The initiative committee itself has a divided opinion on the NPIV. Pierre-André Romanens finds that this compromise is “a good vision of things, quite fair”. Her co-president colleague and also PLR deputy, Joséphine Byrne Garelli, believes that the new equalization responds “neither to the demand for financial rebalancing in favor of the municipalities, which remains insufficient”, nor to the principle of “Who commands pays”, i.e. “do assume a charge by the institutional level which decides it. However, it would have been possible to build horizontal equalization on the financial bases of our initiative.”

“Time will tell us if the NPIV is really clearer, more transparent, more predictable than the old system and if institutional peace will hold between the municipalities and the canton, after twenty-five years of frustration and incomprehension,” adds -she.

Contacted, the president of the Council of State Christelle Luisier “takes note with satisfaction” of the withdrawal of the initiative. “It’s not a big surprise,” she comments. We saw broad support for the counter-project, whether from the municipalities during the general assemblies of the umbrella organizations, or from the deputies during the debates at the Grand Council.

For the minister, “the merit of “SOS Communes” is to have given rhythm to the institutional calendar” on this thorny issue of canton-commune relations. The initiative therefore had an accelerating effect, “but I remind you that the first financial agreement concluded with the Union of Vaudoises Communes dates from 2020”. It is on this basis that the horizontal equalization system – between the Municipalities – was then constructed.

Subject to a referendum, a highly unlikely scenario, the NPIV will come into force on January 1, 2025.

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