Is Parliament violating the constitution?: A dispute looms over the implementation of the ban on tobacco advertising

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A clear majority of the Swiss population said yes: tobacco advertising should be banned wherever it reaches children and young people. While the “Children Without Tobacco” committee celebrated the acceptance of their initiative two years ago today, they are now fighting for its constitutional implementation.

The initiative committee bases itself, among other things, on a report from the Federal Office of Justice (BJ), which examined the adjustments to the initiative text proposed by the Council of States. The small chamber does not want to implement the initiative text literally and allows exceptions, for example for sponsoring music festivals. The committee therefore explicitly described the deletion of some articles from the original version of the initiative as “unconstitutional”.

“That’s un-Swiss”

As if it had overlooked the BJ’s findings, the responsible committee of the National Council adopted most of the Council of States’ suggestions in mid-January. This was the reason for Hans Stöckli (71), former state councilor and chairman of the association ‘Children Without Tobacco’, to go from ‘retirement to unrest’. “The current law does not reflect what people voted on at the time. “That is un-Swiss,” he criticized the media in Bern on Tuesday.

What is currently happening in the committees is indecent. What bothers him, for example, is that the ban on sales promotion and sponsorship should be abolished. Contrary to the initiative, tobacco advertising should also be allowed in press products, as long as the majority of it is sold through subscriptions and the readership is at least 95 percent adults.

Thomas Gächter, dean of the law faculty of the University of Zurich, wrote the original legal text of the initiative. He also finds the adjustments by Parliament problematic. It is particularly sensitive that sponsorship by tobacco companies should continue to be allowed in certain places.

It is not possible to whistle back

Gächter emphasizes: “It is important that the will of the people is implemented in parliament.” Because: There is no legal authority that can whistle back to Parliament.

Except the people. According to the initiative committee, there are still no plans for a referendum in the event of unconstitutional implementation. “We are still very optimistic at the moment,” says Vanessa Bieri of the Swiss Association of Youth Associations. If parliament were to decide unconstitutionally, “we will make our further plans,” Stöckli said. (zac)

Source:Blick