Powerful no vote on donation to Swiss Guard barracks

The electorate of the Canton of Lucerne has rejected a donation of CHF 400,000 to the construction of the Swiss Guards barracks in the Vatican. Three arguments were decisive for this – but the signal effect for other cantons has probably comes too late.

71.5%. Nobody expected such a clear result. Lucerne's electorate has clearly said ‘no’ to the cantonal contribution to the construction of the new Swiss Guard barracks in the Vatican. Ironically, this no vote came in Lucerne, the traditionally Catholic and strongly bourgeois canton from where many guardsmen come and from where most of the Swiss Guard commanders have come.

The massive "no" was due to three essential arguments that convinced voters far into the bourgeois camp. First, the separation of church and state. It is simply not the task of the canton to co-finance a construction project of a security apparatus in a foreign state. This is certainly not the case in the Vatican, which – secondly – has sufficient financial resources to finance the barracks itself. Thirdly, it must have been inexplicable for all non-Catholics why they too should send "their" tax franc to the Swiss Guard; an institution into which only male Catholics are admitted.

Despite the no in Lucerne, the barracks of the Swiss Guard are to be built in the Vatican.        Photo: Alessandro Di Meo

The result should actually have had a signal effect for other cantons. However, because most of them have already dealt with the topic, the clear signal from the Lucerne population probably comes too late. It is therefore to be hoped that those in power will show more sensitivity to similarly sensitive issues in the future – in Lucerne and in the rest of Switzerland.