(LifeSiteNews) — A narrow majority of Swiss voters has approved a government plan to implement a country-wide digital ID.
On Sunday, 50.4 percent of voters in Switzerland voted “yes” on the government plan to implement a digital ID for the whole country. According to Swissinfo, only 21,2766 votes made the difference. The close result was considered a surprise as polls ahead of the ballot showed a clear victory for the “yes” campaign.
Swissinfo wrote that “conservative Switzerland almost brought down the e-ID.”
In 2021, the Swiss people rejected the digital ID with a strong 64 percent majority at the ballot, but the government ran a campaign and put the e-ID to a vote once more. Four years ago, Swiss citizens expressed concern about private providers handling their personal data. The accepted 2025 proposal put the data entirely in the government’s hands and contains commitments to “data minimization,” i.e., not sharing more data than is required with third parties.
According to the government proposal, the Swiss digital ID will only serve as an identity card and will not include further functions, like models in other countries.
While e-ID remains voluntary by law, examples in other countries have shown that there could be pressure or a de facto mandate to use digital ID, as citizens may lose their jobs if they refuse the electronic identification method. Recently, a teacher in Switzerland’s neighboring country, Austria, lost her job shortly before retirement for refusing to use a digital ID.
READ: Austrian teacher fired for refusing to use digital ID one year before retirement
Journalist and CBR chair of Politics, Censorship and Free Speech at the University of Austin, Texan, Michael Shellenberger, warned that one country after another is implementing digital IDs and that, in all of these, “deep state-allied politicians are behind them.”
“The deep state swamp creatures know that digital IDs are unpopular and so they are trying to rush them through before anyone realizes what they are doing,” Shellenberger said.
German lawyer and free speech activist Markus Haintz wrote on X: “It’s a dark day for Switzerland and Europe.”
“A disastrous decision that paves the way for total surveillance of citizens, programmable digital central bank money, and a social credit system à la China,” he warned.
