Swiss Review 4/2021

Swiss Review / August 2021 / No.4 6 Focus JÜRG STEINER Michael Pesaballe remembers 6 May 2007 very well. The Glarus Lands- gemeinde (open-air assembly) was taking place under a torrential down­ pour. Pesabelle, then aged 20 and a member of the Young Socialists, walked up to the microphone on the podium and started to speak. His motion? To lower the voting age to 16. “Honestly, I did not expect to win a majority,” he recounts. But the debate in the ring below became quite heated. “I suddenly realised there was something in the air.” It was a moment for the history books. According to Pesabelle, the then cantonal government member Marianne Dürst gave a “stirring en- dorsement”, after which the open-air assembly narrowly approved the young man’s compromise motion. The age at which people were enti- tled to stand for election to political office was left at 18. However, Glarus became the first-ever Swiss canton to lower the voting age to 16. “Natu- rally, I hoped other cantons would follow suit,” says Pesaballe. Yet noth- ing happened. In 2021, Glarus re- mains the only canton in which 16-year-olds can vote. Motion approved at federal level Pesaballe firmly believes he owed the narrow victory in 2007 both to the innovative spirit in his home canton and to the gut reaction of the crowd that day. He himself says that he would vote in favour of the mo- tion with the same conviction now as he did back then. For example, the climate movement shows that young people, contrary to what many peo- ple might think, are interested and getting involved in political debate, he points out. In his opinion, young people should be entitled to have their own say and learn to take re- sponsibility, given that they are the ones who will have to live with the legacy of the votes. In the last two to three years, there has been movement on the is- sue in the cantons of Vaud, Ba- sel-Stadt, Geneva, Valais, Neuchâtel, Zurich, Berne, Uri, Zug and Lucerne. Developments at national level have been particularly noteworthy. In 2008 and 2017, voting at age 16 had no chance in parliament. Yet this changed in 2020, when the National Council surprisingly approved a mo- tion from the Green National Coun- cillor for Basel-Stadt, Sibel Arslan, with the preliminary consultation committee of the Council of States subsequently endorsing the motion a fewmonths later. This now paves the way towards the drafting of a consti- tutional amendment that would give voting rights to around 130,000 teenagers – including young Swiss Abroad. But before crossing the finishing line, the proposal would have to survive a popular vote at the polls – which is where it has always foundered until now. The canton of Neuchâtel rejected it last year, with 60 per cent of the electorate voting no. Zurich in favour, Berne against Switzerland gave women the vote in 1971 after a long struggle. In 1991, it lowered the voting age from 20 to 18. Foreign nationals only have the right to vote at local level in a small num- ber of municipalities and cantons, while 16-year-olds can only vote at municipal and cantonal level in Gla- rus. Switzerland is always prepared to reassess who is entitled to partici- pate in democracy, but the process always takes a long time. In terms of lowering the voting age to 16, it is helpful to cast a glance at Switzerland’s two most populous cantons, Berne and Zurich. Zurich’s government is in favour, Berne’s is against. Both for quite different rea- sons. In Zurich’s view, the “generational balance” in Swiss politics is out of kilter. The median age of voters is currently 57. According to calcula- tions by the liberal think tank Avenir Suisse, it will rise to well over 60 by 2035. In other words, the influence of the over-60s at the polls is becoming ever greater due to higher life expec- tancy and will soon be the same as that of the under-60s. Zurich’s cantonal government believes that the median age needs to be lower – and that this justifies revitalising the voting pool with Old enough to vote at 16? Young Swiss are clamouring for the voting age to be lowered from 18 to 16. A number of cantons are debating the matter, as are the politicians in Berne. Is this a watershed moment? The Glarus open-air assembly is an an- cient form of direct democracy. On a rainy 6 May 2007, the as- sembly turned pro- gressive by deciding to give 16-year-olds the vote. Photo: Keystone