Nearly 57 percent of Swiss voters and 16 of the country’s 26 cantons agree that the country’s notoriously liberal cigarette rules should be tightened.
The Swiss decided on Sunday to tighten their notoriously liberal tobacco rules by banning virtually all tobacco advertising, with roughly 57 percent of voters supporting the near-total ban and 16 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons supporting it, according to final figures.
“We are very pleased. “The people realised that their health was more essential than their economic interests,” Stefanie De Borba of the Swiss League Against Cancer told to media.
Switzerland lags well behind most rich countries in terms of cigarette advertising restrictions, a position that has been attributed to heavy lobbying by some of the world’s largest tobacco corporations with offices in the country.
Except on television and radio, and when particularly targeting kids, most tobacco advertising is currently permitted on a nationwide level.
Big Tobacco just took a big loss on their home turf. Voters in Switzerland approved legislation prohibiting most tobacco advertising. It's a great win to protect kids and public health. https://t.co/Wp06rL3XgA
— Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (@TobaccoFreeKids) February 14, 2022
Some Swiss cantons have passed harsher regional regulations, and a new national law is in the works, but campaigners who used Switzerland’s direct democracy system to push the subject to a vote demanded considerably stricter rules.
The Swiss government and parliament are among the initiative’s critics, claiming that it goes too far.
“Today we are talking about cigarettes, but we will soon be talking about alcohol and meat,” warned Philippe Bauer, a parliamentarian with the right-wing Liberal Party, decrying “this dictatorship of the politically correct, where everything has to be regulated”.
Philip Morris International (PMI), the world’s largest tobacco firm, has headquarters in Switzerland, like British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco, and has contributed to the “No” campaign.
“In terms of individual freedom, this is a steep slope,” a spokeswoman for PMI’s Swiss division told Media.
He condemned the outcome on Sunday and urged parliament to put the verdict into law with “moderation and measure.”
Jean-Paul Humair, the director of a Geneva addiction prevention centre, praised Sunday’s victory as “a very important milestone” in the fight against tobacco use, dismissing the industry’s arguments outright.
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