GENEVA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- All Swiss cantons and more than 70 percent of voters rejected on Sunday a federal popular Neutrality Initiative seeking to enshrine a stricter definition of neutrality in the Constitution.
The initiative sought to enshrine Switzerland's neutrality as "perpetual and armed" in the Constitution, barring the country from joining or cooperating with any military or defense alliance, unless under military attack or facing imminent attack, and from taking part in military conflicts between third countries or imposing sanctions on belligerent states, except for UN sanctions and measures to prevent their circumvention.
Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that the result did not amount to a rejection of neutrality itself.
"This result is not a vote against neutrality. Switzerland was neutral yesterday, is neutral today, and it will remain neutral in the future," Cassis said at a press conference following the vote on Sunday.
Cassis said the rejection would allow Switzerland to continue deciding on economic sanctions on a case-by-case basis and cooperating with partners if doing so strengthens the country's security, while remaining neutral and without joining a military alliance.
Swiss media broadly described the result as an endorsement of the Federal Council's approach to neutrality and a setback for supporters of a stricter definition, according to a roundup of reports compiled by Keystone-SDA.
The Italian-language daily Corriere del Ticino called the rejection "a final verdict for those who were aiming for strict neutrality as an end in itself," and described the result as "an endorsement of the policy" of the Federal Council and Parliament.
La Regione, another Italian-language daily, described the result as "a verdict with no appeal," saying it averted the risk of making neutrality a rigid foreign-policy doctrine and allowed it to remain flexible depending on international circumstances.
The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), a German-language daily, called it an "irrevocable result," and said the initiative had stood no chance from the start.
The French-language daily Le Temps said the rejection was "a setback for Christoph Blocher," a former Federal Councilor regarded as a prominent supporter of the initiative, and a "yes" to the way the Federal Council applies neutrality. It said voters favored a pragmatic approach that gives the government latitude to adapt neutrality to the international context. ■