Today, the Swiss decided in a referendum that they had "enough of democracy", as they rejected by a majority of votes the proposal to hold more referendums on various international agreements.
The Action for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland (AUNS) believes that citizens should automatically ask themselves every time their government signs an important international agreement and launched the initiative "State agreements before the people", which was decided today in a referendum.
However, none of the 26 Swiss cantons voted for the plan to go to referendums more often, and 75,2 percent of voters rejected it, AP reported.
Leading parties opposed the AUNS proposal, arguing that constant calls for a referendum could stall Swiss democracy - just as one slogan before the referendum read: "Too much democracy kills democracy".
Switzerland annually holds five or six referendums at the national level and a few more at the local level.
The Action for an Independent and Neutral Switzerland believes that a referendum should be held whenever Switzerland has to comply with an international law or court decision - especially if it involves the European Union, to which Switzerland does not belong.
The right-wing Swiss People's Party, the only major party to back the plan, said today's negative response from the Swiss "could have been predicted due to the massive fear campaign waged by their opponents".
As things stand now, in order to call a national referendum on a new law or agreement in Switzerland, a country of more than seven million people, only 50.000 signatures need to be collected.
The criteria are higher - 100.000 signatures - if groups of citizens want to propose a completely new law, but even that is often voted on, and sometimes with success.
The turnout of citizens in referendums rarely exceeds 40 percent, and in this one it was 37,8 percent.
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