With every Swiss canton having its own flavour of rules, regulations and traditions, it can often feel like Switzerland is a collection of 26 independent states. Now, one citizen's proposal submitted to parliament hopes to scrap the cantonal system entirely, replacing it with 10 distinct regions.
After a long career in the energy sector as a chief financial officer, 75-year-old Walter Knöpfel has one remaining goal: to reform how Switzerland is run. His proposal, which will be debated by a parliamentary committee this winter, would see all 26 Swiss cantons scrapped and replaced with 10 regions.
According to his plan, all of the cantons would be incorporated into the following areas:
Knöpfel’s reforms would have their most dramatic impact in central Switzerland, where six cantons would be incorporated into one region.
Speaking to 20 Minuten, Knöpfel called the 26 canton system “out of date.” He argued the fact that Canton Zurich (1,5 million inhabitants) and Appenzell Innerrhoden (16.000 inhabitants) both have to maintain their own government, social security, police, transport, taxation and school systems is fundamentally inefficient.
Alongside the border changes, he also called for the scrapping of the upper house of the Swiss parliament, the Council of States - which gives each canton two (one for half-cantons like Basel-Stadt) representatives - and replacing it with a single chamber of 120 deputies.
The former CFO took aim at the Council of States for not being reflective of the general public. For example, one State Councillor from Zurich represents over 700.000 people, while a member from Uri represents just 18.000 constituents. By scrapping the current system, he added that referendums would also be “fairer” as proposals could no longer be struck down for not gaining support in a majority of cantons, despite winning the popular vote.
Knöpfel isn’t the first to brand the Swiss cantons system as inefficient. Following the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798, the Helvetic Republic set up by Emperor Napoleon sought to take away cantonal power and replace them with more uniform regions.
This plan failed after massive opposition from the people and the elite, which forced the republic’s collapse and the restoration of cantonal privileges in 1803. Napoleon famously said that Switzerland was federal “by nature” and couldn’t be forced into reforms.
According to Swiss People’s Party National Councillor Sandra Sollberger, that resistance remains. The Basel-Land representative noted that when her canton and Basel-Stadt voted on merging in 2014, the city approved the plan by nearly 55 percent of the vote, but 68 percent of Land voters said no. According to World Radio Switzerland, similar proposals to unite Geneva and Vaud have also fallen on deaf ears.
Sollenberger argued that cantons already work together to their mutual benefit, but still want to retain their independence. "A major Swiss-wide territorial reform has no chance at the moment," she concluded.
This was reflected in a recent debate in the Council of States, where Knöpfel’s proposal was rejected unanimously. The minutes of the debate read that the plan would have “enormously far-reaching consequences” with “questionable” chances of being approved by Swiss citizens.
Even Knöpfel confided that he did not think his plan would pass, despite its positives. Nevertheless, the proposal will be debated by the National Council in December.
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