Swiss Solidarity recommends rejecting the SSR initiative on 8 March

On 8 March, Swiss citizens will vote on limiting the radio and television licence fee for private households to CHF 200 per year and on abolishing the obligation for businesses to pay the licence fee. Such a decision would significantly reduce the SRG's financial leeway.

Swiss Solidarity is assessing this initiative from a humanitarian and societal perspective. As an independent foundation whose mission is to enable people to express their solidarity in times of crisis and disaster and to transform this solidarity into concrete aid, it depends on effective national channels of information and mobilisation.

A central pillar of this mobilisation is the long-standing partnership, established 80 years ago, with the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). Its reach, credibility and regional roots enable it to simultaneously inform and raise awareness among the population in all linguistic regions and encourage solidarity. National appeals for solidarity, quadrilingual mobilisation with call centres in Zurich, Geneva, Chur and Lugano, and continuous coverage on SRG channels are key elements of this model.

This collaboration has contributed decisively to the success of major national fundraising campaigns, notably after the tsunami in South-East Asia (2004, CHF 227 million), the war in Ukraine (2022, CHF 140 million) and the landslide in Blatten (2025, CHF 23 million).

A weakening of the SRG would considerably reduce the scope and effectiveness of these appeals for solidarity. Less information and mobilisation would ultimately result in less aid for people in distress, both in Switzerland and abroad.

Without a strong SRG, well-established national solidarity campaigns such as ‘cœur à cœur’ could no longer be carried out. This would lead to less financial support for many aid projects, but also to the loss of a powerful symbol of solidarity and social cohesion.

Furthermore, the SRG fulfils an essential social function by providing reliable, independent and accessible information throughout the country. This function is an important prerequisite for the proper functioning of direct democracy, social cohesion and trust in common institutions – especially in times of crisis.

For all these reasons, Swiss Solidarity recommends voting no to the SRG initiative in the referendum on 8 March.