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Youth wing of Swiss People’s Party calls for Coca-Cola boycott over homophobia referendum

On Monday, Coca-Cola indicated its support for an upcoming Swiss referendum criminalising homophobia. As a result, the leaders of the youth branch of the Swiss Peoples Party (SVP) - the largest party in Switzerland - are calling for a boycott.

Published: 29 January 2020 12:30 CET
Youth wing of Swiss People's Party calls for Coca-Cola boycott over homophobia referendum
Image courtesy Coca Cola

On February 9th, Switzerland will go to the polls to vote on an initiative which would criminalise homophobia to the same extent as other forms of discrimination based on race and gender. 

Early indications are that the referendum has the majority support of Swiss voters. 

The Coca-Cola Company in Switzerland on Monday publicly indicated its support for the initiative. 

EXPLAINED: The Swiss referendum that could criminalise homophobia 

READ MORE: EU migration to affordable housing: All you need to know about Switzerland's crucial spring referendums

As a result, the President of the youth wing of the Swiss People’s Party (JSVP) Benjamin Fischer, 29, put out a press release on Tuesday telling followers to boycott the world’s best-known soft drink company, calling for them to switch to Pepsi or Vivi Kola instead. 

Alongside the hard-right Federal Democratic Union, the JSVP are one of the highest-profile opponents of the referendum, saying that restrictions on homophobic statements would amount to a curtailing of free speech rights. 

‘For a colourful Switzerland’

Although the American soft drink company has involved itself in political campaigns elsewhere before, such political engagement is rare in Switzerland. 

As reported by Swiss tabloid Blick, this is the first time the company has openly joined a political campaign in the Central European nation. 

Entitled the 'Equality Manifesto', on Monday the company launched a campaign calling for a colourful Switzerland in all four Swiss national languages, as well as in English. 

Coca-Cola Switzerland’s Managing Director announced “it is the diversity in this country that makes Switzerland an unprecedented success story.”

While Coke says they are not telling people how to vote, they said they want to “hitch their colours to a colourful Switzerland.”

The full campaign including five languages. Image courtesy Coca-Cola

‘I don’t like Coca-Cola anymore’

In a media release from Tuesday, Fischer criticised the company’s political statement, saying “I don’t like Coca-Cola anymore”. 

In a tweet which has since been deleted, Fischer said there were other cola alternatives that supporters should switch to. 

The party also called out what it perceives to be the company’s hypocrisy, highlighting that the drink is sold in several countries where homosexual acts are criminalised. 

JSVP Managing Director David Trachsel, 25, told Blick that the company is “showing itself in a light it is not entitled to”. 

“Coca Cola is doing business in countries where homosexuality is still banned or even punished with death.”

Trachsel said he no longer wanted to drink Coca-Cola ever again as a result, or at least for a year. 

The referendum, alongside another vote on affordable housing, will be held on February 9th. 

 

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REFERENDUM

What were the results of Switzerland’s cantonal referendums?

Along with national referendums, some Swiss cantons also held their own votes. Among the most contentious ones took place in Geneva, including around rights to vote for foreigners.

Published: 10 June 2024 12:18 CEST
What were the results of Switzerland's cantonal referendums?

Swiss citizens in the French-speaking canton weighed in on some hot button issues on Sunday.

One concerned extending voting rights for foreigners. 

Specifically, the initiative called for foreigners who have lived in the canton for at least eight years, to be able to vote and stand as candidates for political offices at the cantonal level — a move that, if accepted, would make Geneva the first canton to grant non-Swiss citizens such sweeping rights.

(Neuchâtel and Jura allow foreigners to vote at cantonal level, but not stand for election).

However, on Sunday, voters heeded the recommendation of the Geneva parliament, which said that “the only path for foreigners to obtain full political rights is through naturalisation.”

The initiative was refused by 61 percent of voters.

However, 84.7 percent of voters were in favour of another cantonal proposal: to ban “the exhibition or wearing of symbols, emblems and any other object of hatred, particularly Nazi, in public spaces” in Geneva.

Voters also refused to change the current law on assisted suicide in elderly-care facilities.

While assisted suicide is legal throughout Switzerland, some cantons, like Vaud and Valais, also authorise public care facilities o allow this practice, as long as all the legal conditions are met.

Also in Geneva, such a legislation had prevented care facilities from banning assisted suicide on their premises.

However, cantonal parliament suspended these provisions, prompting an assisted suicide organisation, EXIT, to bring the issue to the polls.

Just over 76,5 percent of voters cast their votes in favour of maintaining the current system.

READ ALSO: Do Swiss cantons have different rules on assisted suicide?

What about other cantons?

Referendums were held in some cantons only.

In Fribourg, for instance, voters had to decide on constitutional initiative which sought to  ensure a public hospital emergency service operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the entire canton.

This initiative was driven by the cut in health services on the outskirts, which caused an increase in emergencies and an overload of cases in the hospitals in the city of Fribourg.

However, 62.8 percent of voters rejected this initiative. Instead, they favoured their parliament’s counter-proposal to improve access to health services for all residents of the canton.

And in Zug, 59.5 percent of voters said no to an initiative calling for a “safe, direct and continuous bicycle network” to be implemented in the canton by 2030.

Instead, voters agreed with their government’s argument that most of the initiative’s concerns have already been met because the canton has been working on improving the cycle path network for years.
 

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