Who turns down a long vacation? Known for their work ethic, Swiss citizens appear to be leading the way on European austerity, rejecting a minimum six weeks paid holiday a year.
Switzerland counted ballots Sunday for five national referendums, including one pushed by a union to raise the minimum holiday up from four weeks, which is the standard used in Germany, Italy, Russia and other European nations. Some of the nation's 26 cantons (states) also held voting on local measures to deal with everything from demonstrators to prostitutes.
The Swiss heeded warnings from government and business that more vacation would raise labor costs and put the economy at risk. Swiss public broadcaster SSR said two-thirds of voters and all of the cantons had rejected the measure, which required majority approval of all federal and cantonal voters.
"In rejecting the initiative, citizens have kept a sense of reality," said Hans-Ulrich Bigler, director of the Swiss Union of Arts and Crafts, which represents around 300,000 businesses. The referendum, he said in a statement, could have added 6 billion francs ($6.52 billion) a year in labor costs to the Swiss economy, but the vote "clearly shows that the population continues to focus on individual freedom and responsibility of citizens."
Though popular with young people, the referendum on vacation time tested how comfortable the Swiss feel about their traditional safe-haven economy. The nation has fared better than most others in debt-saddled Europe, where the financial sector and governments are being forced to cut spending and pay for expensive bailouts.
But there may have been too much of a good thing for Switzerland: As international traders leery of other nations' financial stability poured money into the safety of Swiss money accounts, the franc jumped in value, putting a dent in Swiss exports and tourism.
The Swiss central bank moved in September to put a lid on the currency's rise by setting a target exchange rate of 1.20 Swiss francs per euro, but the Swiss economy is still expected to slow this year, because of turmoil in the global economy and the eurozone's debt crisis.
(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
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(Agencies)
誰會拒絕長假的誘惑呢？一向以職業道德著稱的瑞士人如今似乎正在引領歐洲國家財政緊縮的潮流，該國民眾剛剛否決了每人每年至少有六周帶薪假期的提議。
瑞士周日就五項政策舉行全民公決，其中包括由瑞士工會提出的，將每年的帶薪假期由至少四周增加到至少六周的提案，目前，德國、義大利、俄羅斯和其他歐洲國家實行的都是這一標準。瑞士的26個州也就一些本地政策舉行表決，涉及範圍非常廣泛，牽涉人群有示威者也有性工作者。
公投前，瑞士政府和商界都發出了警告，稱延長假期將提高勞動力成本，威脅瑞士經濟。據瑞士公共廣播公司SSR報導，三分之二的選民和所有州都否決了這項提議，而提議要獲得通過，就要得到聯邦和各州全部選民的多數支持。
瑞士工藝美術業工會主任漢斯-烏裡齊•比格勒爾說：「公眾否決了這項提議，非常現實。」該工會代表著大約30萬家企業。他在聲明中說，如果這項提議通過公決，那麼每年將增加60億瑞士法郎 （約合65.2億美元）的人力成本，但投票結果「清楚地表明，人們不僅關注個人自由，同時也願意承擔公民義務」。
儘管受到年輕人的歡迎，這次有關假期的公投檢驗出人們對傳統上有「經濟安全港」之稱的瑞士經濟的滿意程度。和一些陷入債務危機、財政部門和政府不得不削減開支來償還緊急援助巨款的歐洲國家相比，瑞士的經濟情況要好得多。
但對瑞士來說也有壞消息：由於國際貿易者懷疑其他國家的金融穩定性，把太多錢存在瑞士的帳戶，導致瑞士法郎升值，對瑞士的出口和旅遊業造成打擊。
瑞士央行去年9月暫停貨幣升值，將瑞士法郎與歐元最低比價定為1.20瑞郎對1歐元。但由於受到全球經濟低迷和歐債危機的影響，預計今年瑞士的經濟還將下滑。
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（中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯：陳丹妮）