Results of the last vote

A couple of weeks ago there was a nationwide voting, which I already mentioned in one of my previous posts. The outcome for the mentioned topic got an overwhelmingly large amount of support.
Other topics included the introduction of a minimum wage of 4000 Chf (around 4400 USD), which is failed to over win the majority. As did the one for purchasing new air force planes for defense. And why would not it? Buying new planes when the country is defended only during office hours? It seems that would not make sense for the Swiss.

Defending the country

Switzerland takes many things seriously, including defending itself and its people. They not only testing the sirens once in a while but they regularly monitoring their airspace. Well, to be honest, they actually kind of do it during office hours and weekdays only. Yes, that's right. Twice a day the planes of the Swiss Air Force take off and go around above the country but finish their work when everyone else does and obviously (?) they are off during the weekends.
The first time I heard the planes I thought there is a plane that was actually crushing into our apartment. It's unbelievably loud as they prepare for landing.
Of course they monitor the country out of office hours from the ground but they do not have planes ready to take off in case something happens.
The next nationwide voting in May includes a question about whether or not Switzerland should buy 22 new fighter jets from Sweden costing billions of franks.

Another nationwide vote

After the nationwide vote in February (topics included immigration cap), another vote is coming up in May. This time one of the topics is whether or not ban convicted child abusers from working with kids. Apparently now that's not the case and there were precedents in the past, where convicted abusers cold go back teaching after their sentence was over. I am just hoping this initiative will pass. There has to be some common sense...

Understanding the Swiss

To understand what Swiss people are about one of the most important things is to understand how their country (and political system) operates.
Switzerland is not an ordinary country. Swiss people like deciding about their own future and their country's. In practice this means that they actually decide what would happen in their country. That's part of the direct democracy, the system they are running over here. Basically citizens directly vote on anything that would affect their country. Does anyone (and that does not mean the government!) want to increase the yearly highway fee? They cannot unless the citizens vote with yes. And that's about every single thing.. Anyone who has enough signature collected (not sure about the number exactly but want to raise it in the future) for an initiative  can put it up for a vote and citizens do have to vote about it nationwide. Consequently, there are a LOT of voting going around here but maximum 'only' four nationwide each year.
The next one is coming up in February on several topics including immigration and who is paying for the bill in case of an abortion. Yes, that's a unique country indeed.