The National Council rejected the initiative by 146 votes against, 14 for and 12 abstentions, a result that is not surprising considering the novelty of our proposal. The next step is consideration by the Commission on Social Security and Public Health of the States Council Thursday 8 and Friday, 9 October, and the vote by the States (see the attached open letter of information we sent to the Commission). The sessions calendar shows it is entirely plausible that the initiative is submitted to popular vote already in June 2016.

146 against – 12 abstentions – 14 for the initiative
(The vote was on the suggestion of rejection emitted by the Commission)

• www.parlament.ch (search for 'inconditionnel')" >Detail of the votes of the site of the Parliament (search for 'inconditionnel')

Hereafter extracts from the speech of M. Andreas Gross (Socialist/Zurich) at the National Council : [+]

Alternatiba-Leman Festival will take place from September 18 to 20, 2015 in Geneva. For three days, meetings and celebrations will show that alternatives for climate and living together exist and allow to build a fairer and more cohesive society. [+]

Came to power in April in Finland, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and Finnish center- right coalition announced in early July, to want to try the experience of unconditional basic income. At the last city council of Utrecht in Holland, Green Left and the Social Liberal Party agreed: the city will launch in the first quarter 2016, an experiment UBI. On July 6, 2015, the Regional Council of Aquitaine in France has voted unanimously a motion by the Green Group, to experiment on the territory an adaptation of his active solidarity income (RSA) towards an UBI.

Helsinki/Finlande

In Aquitaine, given the difficulty of establishing a true basic income to the level of a region, it would be to experience the automatic and unconditional payment of the RSA (Active Solidarity Income) to anyone currently entitled to. "The RSA calculation rules wouldn't change. On the other hand, the beneficiaries will no longer have to do any steps to collect or to prove their job search. All who are now entitled to receive the RSA would receive it automatically without having to ask (two thirds of those eligible now renounce by ignorance, shame or fear of red tape).

Génération-RBI [UBI] launched a new prospectus for information on the UBI initiative. This is a pamphlet of five double-sided pages that have the essential information, on eight stories and the opinion of two experts: Mr. Guy-Olivier Segond, former Chairman of the State Council and the Department of Action social and health of the Canton of Geneva, and Mr. Sergio Rossi, Professor, Chair of macroeconomics and Monetary Economics, Department of Political Economy at the UNIFR.

An innovative and attractive graphic design, a lively and catchy editorial content makes you want to browse the prospectus, to show it to his friends and inspires the general public for more information. Ask soon your own prospectus for distribution via our our order form !

Note: yet only available in FR. [+]

The Association of French and Italian speaking swiss institutions of social action (ARTIAS) published in July a file drafted by Ralph Kundig, President of BIEN-CH: « Unconditional basic income, the Social Security of the XXIth century » (20 pages, French).

Summary: [+]

The Centre Party, a party which is in support of Basic Income, will become the largest party in the Finnish parliament, after winning yesterday’s election.

Juha-Sipilä, Center party.

They received 21% of the vote with 99% of votes counted. Other Basic Income-supporting parties, the Green League and the Left Alliance were on 8% and 7% respectively. This is a big gain for both the Centre Party and the Green League but is a reduction in support for the Left Alliance. The second and third biggest parties respectively were the conservative NCP party and the populist True Finns. As a result, the Centre Party is predicted to form a ruling coalition with these two parties. [+]

The ordinary general assembly of BIEN-CH took place:

It was followed in the afternoon with a presentation session and animation proposed by Generation-RBI, romand action group for the "Federal initiative for a basic income" and member of BIEN-CH. This includes the program of a competitive teams, with a set of questions and answers about the UBI and a workroom to create a range of beggars robots (which also eventually will be replaced one day by robots ...). Several other game ideas around the UBI are under study and each are invited to offer other ideas. :)

A Canadian buffet was served between two: sandwiches, delicious salads and other home made dishes, the whole accompanied with soft drinks, were shared on the terrasse

For our basic income friends, it was a great opportunity to meet. There were forty of us awaiting!

BIEN-CH GA agenda was: [+]

Green party (England) outlines plan for basic citizen’s income for all adults.

Natalie Bennett says payment to replace unemployment benefit would ensure no one lived in fear of losing their home.

The Green party would spend billions to give every adult – in and out of work – a citizen’s income The Green party would spend billions to give every adult – in and out of work – a citizen’s income worth more than £72.40 a week, the current value of the jobseeker’s allowance.

Natalie Bennett, the Green leader, said the policy would ensure no one lived in fear of losing their home or being unable to feed themselves. She said some of the cost would be recovered by the payment being withdrawn when an individual income reached a certain level. [+]

The groups in German Switzerland planning for the initiative’s voting campaign have organized a meeting in Zurich, and are cordially inviting everyone already involved (or who would like to get involved) in the voting campaign, to attend. The meeting will be an opportunity to exchange ideas, plans and our enthusiasm for convincing the population to say “Yes” to the coming popular vote on the initiative.

Meeting open to all!

Information : Unconditional Basic Income coordination meeting

Invitation: [+]

At the end of last year we sent the members of the Committees for Social Security and Health of National Concil* (CSSH-N) our detailed dossier on the Unconditional Basic Income initiative. This Commission will be continuing to consider the initiative at its next meeting, scheduled for 19-20 February 2015.

With the dossier we enclosed a cover-note, reproduced below, suggesting that the deputies commission a thorough study examining the possible effects of the introduction of a basic income. Such a study should in principle have been carried out by the Government before sending the initiative on to the Parliament, but it still has not been done, even though it is essential for the Parliament and later on the voters to have a satisfactory basis for their decision.

* National Concil is the lower house of parliament

Text of our message to Members of Parliament: [+]