Swiss Abroad more favourable towards motorway expansion

The Swiss Abroad are much more in favour of expanding the motorway network than respondents in Switzerland. This is shown by the first survey by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), SWI swissinfo.ch's parent company, on the November 24 vote. It's an exception to the norm. As a rule, the Swiss Abroad are much more environmentally conscious in their voting behaviour than residents. But in this instance the majority polled want to vote for highway expansion – almost 10% more than those surveyed in Switzerland. Why is that? Political scientist Martina Mousson from polling research institute gfs.bern doesn't know the answer either. “That contradicts the pattern,” she says. There is one possible explanation but it’s a flimsy one. Normally, the Swiss diaspora is more likely to follow the government’s position in votes than the domestic population. According to Mousson, this can explain part of the discrepancy, but not all of it. The fact that the Swiss Abroad will not have to pay for ...