Vote for runway extension: Zurich government cancels airport opponents’ arguments

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Zurich Airport wants to extend runway number 28 by 400 meters towards the west and runway number 32 by 280 meters towards the north. “The aim is to increase safety margins and improve operational processes, leading to more reliable and stable operations with fewer delays overall,” writes the Zurich government council that supports the project.

Slope extension comes before people

The cantonal parliament approved the plans, but left-green parties and opponents of aircraft noise accepted the referendum. They believe that the airport does not want to expand the runways for safety reasons, but that it wants to be able to increase capacity in the long term. “The expansion plans are a lie,” says Urs Dietschi (69), vice president of the citizens’ organization “Fair in Air” and a Greens cantonal councillor.

The bill will appear before the nation on March 3, 2024. However, the voting booklet published this week by the Zurich government council is confusing. The referendum committee accuses the canton of deleting important information opposing enlargement. Dietschi: “Our statement was shortened on our own initiative and without consultation, so that almost half of the page is now blank, which will not allow room for any discussion.”

The government is aware of the allegations

Airport opponents suspect that FDP economic director Carmen Walker Späh (65), one of the supporters of the government council and above all of the runway expansion, deliberately highlighted important information to increase the likelihood of the proposal being accepted. .

Government spokesman Andreas Melchior vehemently denies these claims: “This is a malicious assumption by the referendum committee that is not true.” The government council approved the newspaper, voting at the request of the State Chancellery.

Melchior explains that the opponents’ statement was shortened to half a page as follows: “It was not possible to reach agreement in time with the referendum committee on a text containing any graphics in terms of content and format. We comply with the legal provisions of the GPR (Political Rights Act, editor’s note) and the State Chancellery of the Canton of Zurich It complies with the requirements of.” This was despite intensive dialogue, assistance from the State Chancellery and an extension of the application deadline.

The GPR states that the “electoral authority” may amend or reject “defamatory, manifestly unfounded or excessively wordy statements” contained in the referendum committee’s statement.

What wasn’t included in the voting booklet?

Blick has the original statement submitted by the referendum committee. Accordingly, the following sentences, among others, were not included on the ballot:

• “Air traffic is already responsible for 27 percent of human-caused climate impact in Switzerland.”
• “If the number of passengers is increased to 50 million by widening the runways, noise and pollutant pollution (…) will increase in all directions.”
• “According to the airport report, peace and tranquility are violated by air traffic every night after 11pm and before 6am.”
• “Between 2010 and 2015, approximately 800 of the 25,000 deaths studied near Zurich Airport were attributable to cardiovascular failure caused by aircraft noise at night (Empa/Swiss Institute of Tropical and Public Health, 2020) »
• “Those in charge of the airport confirmed at the press conference that security is unlimited.”

Evasive answers are given to questions

Government spokesman Melchior did not want to answer Blick’s question about which of these statements violated the GPR in the opinion of the State Chancellery and the Government Council. Instead, he announced on Friday that the referendum committee had the option of appeal and that the final decision would be made by the Federal Court.

Yesterday afternoon, airport opponents decided to exercise this right. “We filed a complaint with the government council about voting rights,” says Dietschi of the citizens’ organization “Fair in Air”. In Switzerland, violations of political rights during elections and voting can be complained to the Federal Court with a voting rights complaint.

Source :Blick