Vote for secular candidates!
We asked the candidates for the National Council and Council of States ten questions and used their answers to create a ranking.
Click here for the parties' answers.
Each question could be answered with yes, rather yes, rather no or no. For 10x yes there is 100%.
(Only candidates who answered our questions are listed in our ranking).
The ten questions
- Pastoral care
Today, religious chaplains are available to hospital, home and prison inmates as well as members of the armed forces. Are you in favor of giving non-religious persons equal access to a secular-humanistic counseling service?Additional information: The provision of pastoral care in public institutions is subsidized by the state. So far, however, the federal government and the cantons exclusively mandate religious communities to provide such services.
- Assisted suicide
Should state-subsidized homes be required to allow assisted suicide on their premises?
- Ethics instead of religious education
Are you in favor of schools giving more weight to ethical issues and the living environment of non-religious children in the subject area "Ethics, Religions, Community (ERG)"? Additional information: 3. ERG is part of Curriculum 21. In many cantons, religious studies dominate and non-religious people are hardly or not at all mentioned in the teaching materials.
- Bans on high holidays
Several cantons prohibit markets, dances, sports tournaments, and other recreational activities on "high holidays" (e.g., Pentecost Sunday). Are you in favor of lifting these religiously motivated bans and putting "high" holidays on the same legal footing as Sundays, like all others?
- Neutral dress for state employees
Should state employees with contact to the population (police officers, teachers, judges, etc.) be obligated to appear ideologically neutral in their work and thus refrain from wearing religious clothing (cross pendants, headscarves, yarmulkes, etc.)?
- Church taxes for legal entities
Many cantons have a church tax obligation for associations, foundations and companies. Are you in favor of abolishing the church tax for legal entities or converting it into a levy where a choice can be made among several charitable organizations?
- Federal Constitution
Do you support a religiously neutral (i.e. without reference to God) preamble to the Federal Constitution?
- Ban on blasphemy
Mocking religious beliefs is prohibited under criminal law in Switzerland. Since 2015, Norway, Iceland, Malta, France, Denmark and New Zealand have repealed their blasphemy articles. Should Switzerland do the same?See also frei-denken.ch/ResolutionBan on blasphemy
- Separation of church and state
In the cantons of Neuchâtel and Geneva, state and churches are clearly separated. Religious communities there organize themselves as associations. Are you in favor of a separation of state and religious communities throughout Switzerland?
- Basic insurance
The FVS is committed to scientific research, also in the healthcare sector: Are you in favor of removing homeopathy and other non-evidence-based therapies from the benefits catalog of basic health insurance?