Article by Katherine Loh, and Imad Aad: “On September 28, 2025, Swiss voters once again considered a referendum on a national digital identity (e-ID) law passed by Parliament. The government’s first attempt at legislating a national digital ID passed in 2019 but was roundly rejected by referendum in 2021, when 64% of voters opposed the law, citing concerns that it delegated operations to private companies. The popular backlash catalyzed years of national deliberation on the question of what kind of e-ID model could meet citizens’ demands for transparency, privacy, and security. Parliament passed a redesigned e-ID law in 2024, and this one stood the test of another referendum, but by the thinnest of margins. The new law was supported by just 50.4% of voters.
This referendum back-and-forth is not unfamiliar to the Swiss. By some accounts, Switzerland holds one-fifth of the world’s national referendums. Switzerland’s direct democracy enables any party that gathers more than 50,000 signatures to launch a nationwide referendum. Combining national, cantonal, and municipal-level referendum initiatives, Swiss citizens vote on around a dozen referendums a year.
What was unique about the e-ID debate was the way it provoked an unusual level of anxiety and mistrust. In a country where people have long relied on the digital world for banking, payments, communications, and travel planning, development of a national digital ID system brought into sharper focus a broader unease around the digitalization of society. For the Swiss, an e-ID represents more than an app; it is a bellwether for the future of long-cherished rights and values around identity and citizenship in the digital age…(More)”.
