Commentary on highways –
The red card to the roads is a serious warning
The rejection of the extension of six motorway projects is the result of an accumulation of oppositions that the authorities must take seriously.
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- Opponents of highway expansion score major victory.
- The partisans, for their part, suffered a significant failure, with far-reaching consequences.
- This vote calls for a redefinition of mobility integrating more public transport and ecology.
- This result also foreshadows an extremely tense vote on the “No Switzerland for 10 million” initiative.
There is the resounding victory of the opponents. But above all there is the mortifying defeat of the partisans.
Because on paper, this election was unlosable. Supported by the Federal Council, endorsed by parliament, this highway extension project had the support of the Center, the PLR and the UDC, whose voters are the majority in Switzerland. Not to mention that with more than 4 million, the supporters had more money than the opponents and their 2.7 million.
However, the partisans lost. It is a failure for the bourgeois camp, but also for Albert Rösti, who had never before been challenged as federal voting councilor.
A result whose consequences must be taken seriously. Already because the Greens and their allies have shown – after having bitten the dust several times – that they were capable of tripping up the bourgeois majority. After acceptance of the 13e rent and the refusal of the LPP reform, we must see this as a new order of the people in the face of a form of right-wing arrogance.
From now on, this vote requires the authorities to rethink mobility in this country. By integrating more public transport and climate protection.
But this result also raises the question of living together and even national cohesion. The massive no of cities shows that its inhabitants want to be heard on the effects of traffic on their quality of life. We will have to find solutions that do not harm those who need their car.
Finally, there is a conservative reflex in this result. In this Switzerland where immigration is a recurring theme, there is no question of adapting the highways to a Switzerland that would welcome ever more people. There is no question, either, of sacrificing agricultural land under asphalt for the sole reason of growth.
This echoes the UDC initiative “No Switzerland for 10 million”, which seems like a scarecrow. With the refusal this Sunday, the authorities are warned, without credible alternatives to respond to the concerns of the population, this vote will be one of all dangers.
Florent Quiquerez has been a journalist in the Switzerland section since 2015. Specializing in politics, he primarily covers federal news. Previously, he worked as a parliamentary correspondent for Radios Régionales Romandes.More info
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