You know it yourself. It was a tactical mistake. "But we had to react," says Thomas Juch. "Our opponents are spreading that initiative would mean end of SRG." The people, voters, y are insecure, y wanted to know what happens to radio and television stations when No-Billag initiative is adopted on 4 March. Therefore, Juch, Young Liberals history student and one of four co-presidents of No-Billag committee, would have presented this Plan B, as Swiss radio and television Company (SRG) could continue to exist. Without fees, with subscriptions. Without a full programme, with additional advertising revenue – and: With money from federal treasury.
With ir Plan B, initiators want to prove that ir ory can exist in reality.
A Switzerland in which everyone pays only for what y actually need. The railway commuter for SBB, motorist for national roads, radio listener for SRG.
A Switzerland in which everyone takes care of mselves: for old age, unemployment or case of sickness.
A Switzerland without institutionalized solidarity, without a collective, which carries one, if one needs it.
A libertarian Switzerland.
An ego cooperative.
Only politics does not work like a uni-seminar. It's not about being right, but about winning. If one month before vote clarifies his concern, he does not receive recognition from his profes, but weakens his position. He makes himself vulnerable, is considered fickle, uncertain. Especially when he contradicts himself: if he, who wants to liberate radio and television from state influence, calls for same state. Thomas Juch says: "It was a reaction to anxiety that is stoked by all sides."
In fact, 24-year-old and his no-Billag-comrades demand: "The Confederation or third parties authorized by him are not allowed to charge reception fees." It is in your own-initiative text.
This article dates back to time No. 06/2018. Here you can read entire output.And y were able to win surprisingly many Swiss people for this radical idea, which would completely change country and its media.
The first polls brought a narrow majority for popular petition. No wonder: The Billag and ir fee-drivers have a bad reputation – and 451 francs that every household has to pay per year are not a little. Soon, however, no-Billag-initiators faced a service public phalanx: artists, politicians and entrepreneurs, journalists, sportsmen and scientists resisted for ir SRG. A journalistic offer, at this level, in four national languages, never and ever be privately financed.
That worked. At end of January, latest survey by Research Institute GFS Bern showed: 60 percent of voters reject no Billag.
But even if initiators were to lose on 4 March: only discussion that y provoked is a great success for Juch and his committee. Their libertarian ideas, which were debated only in apocrypha circles or niche magazines a few years ago, have arrived in political mainstream.
How did that come about?
Date Of Update: 04 February 2018, 12:03
