How not to legislate and regulate
Switzerland's 2025 "Rusty Paragraph" award is announced!
As some of you may recall, it is an annual tradition in Switzerland to choose the most misguided, useless, and superfluous piece of legislation, or the most bizarre and bureaucratic public project of the past year. The “Rusty Paragraph” is a symbolic trophy created by IG Freiheit1 to call attention to the absurdity of overregulation.
We're Swiss and this is not funny
It is not April Fool’s Day; we did that already. However, it is time for another annual Swiss ritual that, depending on one’s perspective, is either hilarious or deadly serious. The nominees for the “Rusty Paragraph” award have been announced and voting has commenced.
The results are in
This year the prize was awarded for the 19th time and chosen by popular vote (very Swiss!) on the organization’s website. At the awards ceremony in Zurich this week there was no mention made of how many votes were received, but I must assume it was more than the 13 excitable readers who made their choice here.2
The image of uptight Swiss persons digging up the decayed cotton underpants that they themselves buried in their garden, and sending them in as “data” to assess soil conditions was irresistible to the majority of you. I understand. Sadly, Eva Reinhard and the Agroscope federal agricultural research center running the project missed the medals entirely, coming in fourth place with 15% of the votes.
Defund De-arm the police
This year’s prize went to Lausanne, which gained nul points3 from you, fair readers! The verdict in the public online vote was equally clear: city councilor Ilias Panchard's proposal for a ban on weapons for city police officers won with a whopping 44% of the votes. Panchard, a member of the Green Party, is rather annoyed with the local police. He charges that too many police officers just sit in their cars—and neglect contact with the public, which is the foundation of community policing. Panchard’s conclusion is that the police don’t need service weapons for this; in fact, a weapon is unnecessary for most police operations. Even worse, police officers “packing heat” make de-escalation measures more difficult and conflict situations with violent young people more dangerous.
In second place– far behind, with only 19% of the votes– was Zurich city councilor André Odermatt for his creative public housing policy. You also made subsidized housing for the rich who forego using a car your second place.
Completing the podium ranks in the public vote was Lucerne National Council member David Roth (16%) for his quest to make Lucerne suitcase-free.
With underwear scientists at number four, that leaves at last and least the Green Party’s plan to introduce a luxury tax, which garnered only 6% of the votes.
A non-partisan association of individuals who are committed to defending the civil liberties of citizens and opposing the enactment of unnecessary government regulations, according to their own statutes.
In my editing ineptitude, I managed to erase the poll in the original post after taking this screenshot. Sorry. (For the record: These reported results are not manipulated.)
Seeing as the Eurovision Song Contest is currently underway in Basel, I have allowed myself this grammatically incorrect reference en français. ESC fans will understand.