Just over 70,000 signatures were deposited last Tuesday at the Federal Chancellery.
The initiative, entitled "Living in Dignity - for an unconditional, financeable basic income", was intended to guarantee the right to a life in dignity and self-determination.
The amount of the basic income would have been fixed in a law. The basic income for all persons domiciled in the country was to be financed by a share of the wealth produced by the national economy, such as a micro-tax on all transactions or a direct levy on companies.
The initiative committee, composed of a group of independent people, including Mr. Oswald Sigg, former Vice-Chancellor of the Confederation, submitted the 70,000 or so initials obtained to the Federal Chancellery on March 21 in the form of a petition.
The committee assumed that everyone is free to launch their own initiative independently. BIEN-Switzerland was not involved in the launch of this initiative, nor were the other Swiss UBI networks that had worked on the first initiative.
If the introduction of a UBI seems unavoidable considering the threats that technological progress poses to employment, the path of direct democracy requires the support of a broad coalition and appropriate financial means to have even a reasonable chance of seeing the collection of signatures succeed.
While waiting for such a coalition to emerge, BIEN-Switzerland continues its mission of information and lobbying in the service of Basic Income.