GENEVA, June 5. /TASS/. No guaranteed basic income will be granted to each citizen in Switzerland, as follows from the results of a Sunday referendum.
Although vote counting is still underway, the result is already clear as most of Switzerland’s 26 cantons have come up against the public initiative to introduce a guaranteed basic income for all. In such situation, the initiative cannot be approved whatever the general voting result is. To be adopted, such an initiative requires the so-called double majority, i.e. both in cantons and at the federal level.
Advocates of the initiative to guarantee a basic income of 2,500 Swiss francs (1,260 euro) a month for an adult and 625 francs (565 euro) for a child have failed to prove its expediency. Despite the seeming attractiveness of the idea most of the voters have heeded the country’s government which warned that it will have to raise taxes to have more than 200 billion francs to pay the guaranteed allowances.