A popular initiative to ban intensive livestock farming in Switzerland failed on Sunday, but raising the retirement age for women to 65 appears to have been accepted by voters, according to first results published by the gsf.bern institute and cited by Reuters.

Pensioners on the shores of Lake Geneva in SwitzerlandPhoto: DreamsTime

After two failed attempts in 2004 and 2017, Bern appears to have won enough votes to “stabilize” the Swiss pension system, which is under enormous pressure as life expectancy rises and the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age.

The most controversial part of the reform means that, like men, women must work until they are 65 before they can claim a full pension, a year longer than now.

By contrast, supporters of a proposal to ban intensive livestock farming, which would effectively wipe out industrial farms in the still very rural country, were defeated, according to gfs.bern calculations published just after the polls closed at 10:00 GMT (13:00 in Romania). .

Women in Switzerland have a 35% lower pension than men

Last year, parliament passed key measures, including an increase in VAT, but left-wing parties and trade unions condemned the reforms “at the expense of women” and forced this referendum, according to AFP, taken from News.ro

Supporters of the “yes” camp in this reform believe that asking women to work an extra year is not unreasonable, given the economic and demographic data.

But opponents of the reform argue that women will continue to face significant discrimination and have significantly lower wages. They believe that it is unfair to raise the retirement age for women before eliminating this inequality.

According to the Swiss Ministry of Economy, in 2020 women in Switzerland received an average of 35% less pension than men.

But polls show that Swiss voters, who twice rejected the government’s plans to reform pensions, are now more supportive of the reform.

According to a recent poll by Tamedia, 55% of people surveyed supported the reform, but this percentage hides gender differences: 70% of men polled support the reform, while 58% of women polled reject it.

(article photo © Inna Felker | Dreamstime.com)