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【J】	2007年6月17日　国民投票 「障害者保険第5次修正案」他	明子　ヒューリマン
【E】	National Voting on June 17, 2007 The 5th revision of the disabled insurance, and others	Akiko Hürlimann

□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━【日本語 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□

2007年6月17日　国民投票

「障害者保険第5次修正案」他

明子　ヒューリマン

連邦政府が障害者保険の第5回修正法案の是非を求めてきた。今回は議案が一つと思いきや、送られてきた投票用紙入り封筒がいつもよりぶ厚かった。何と州レヴェルの議案が7件とゲマインデの議案が1件と結構盛り沢山。しかも州レヴェルの議案の6件は住民投票に関する州憲法の修正案だというのだから庶民にはやや抽象的な内容で、一瞬目眩を覚えた。これらをまともに勉強して意思決定をするのは相当しんどい話だ。すべての議案は提案者である連邦・州・ゲマインデ案に賛成するよう求めている。政治家と行政を信頼して全部「JA」にするという手も有るにはあるのだが。とにかくざっとでも手元にある資料と新聞報道に目を通してみようと気を取り直した。

先ず連邦レヴェルの議案はどのようなものかだが、障害者が反対しているので、彼らにとって厳しくなる内容だと言う事は判った。連邦政府の説明資料によると、議案の目的は2点。障害者の就業率を上げ、結果障害者年金の支出を抑えること。巨額の赤字基金をこのままにしておけば、その赤字を補填する国民年金基金をも危うくしかねないので、正常な状態に戻そうというのだ。1960年に施行されて以来、受給者数は1990代年から2005年の僅か15年程でほぼ3倍になり、支給額も1980年代から2005年の25年間で2倍に達し、2006年の受給者は299,000人、支給額が64億スイスフランに上っているという。障害者保険の赤字分は1999年以来国民年金で補填されているのだが、2006年の時点で国民年金基金の3分の一に迫る勢いで、GNP（ジェトロによると2005年度は4,556億スイスフラン)の1.4％にもなる。このまま増え続けるとすれば、2017年には国民年金基金を上回る金額になるという試算が示されている。正にギョッとさせられる数字ではある。

賛成広告をしきりにマスコミに掲載しているのが、「悪用を阻止」とキャンペーンを張るSVP（スイス国民党）。それに「健全で安定的な障害者保険制度」を求めるFDP（自由民主党）とCVP（キリスト教民主党）だ。適切な支給を決定できない担当者がインターネット依存症、不眠症、燃え尽き症候群等の軽微な症状で受給資格を与え、納税者が扶養しなければならないのは反社会的だそうだ。外国人の受給者の多さも批判の対象となっていて2人に1人にもなるという。それ以外の左派政党と労働組合は反対キャンペーンを展開している。

現実は、精神障害者も含まれる障害者が各企業の従業員に占める割合は極めて少ない。「企業に障害者を雇用する義務を課す法律が欠かせない」とルツェルン市の福祉担当責任者のルエディ・マイヤー氏。4月末、挑発的なポスターがマスコミをしばし賑わせた。メルツ蔵相とクシュパン内務省が車椅子に、ブロッハー法相は白い杖を持ち、SVPのマウレル党首に至っては右手の先に義手が付けられていた、等々。更に数日後には、各々のポスターに「反対」と書き加えた著名な漫画家の風刺漫画が有力紙のトップを飾った。何とまあ挑戦的な風刺であることか！身体障害者に対する国家支援は厳しい道程があったそうだが、現在可也手厚く保障さ

れているようだ。

ただでさえ身障者は厳しい日常を送っている筈で、彼らの就業には格別の配慮が必要なのは当然の事だと思う。又障害者に就業の機会が少ない事態を改善する事無くして年金の切捨ては民主主義国家の採るべき道ではないと思う。この問題、明日は我が身になる可能性は誰にもある。しかし、このまま爆発的に増えている負担増を放置するわけにも行かない。国民年金制度の破綻をも招くから。個人的には企業に障害者の雇用義務を求める法律の制定が先かと思う。この点、日本では実体はどうあれ、一応法制化はされていると承知している。

州レヴェルの住民投票は年金法と住民投票と選挙他に関する州憲法の見直し案の計7件。年金法はさすが賛否両論かまびすしい議論が展開されている。居住地の州職員は自他共に有能で意欲的な公務員との評価を得ており、それ故手厚い待遇を受けているようだ。民間より有能な職員を獲得する体制を維持するか、否か。これは思案のしどころのようだ。が、人口構成上年金基金はいずれ削減を迫られる時が来るとの見解がある。早めの取り組みに賛成しよう。他の議案は選挙と住民投票に関する手続き法等で、地域の専門家が練り直したものなのでこれも信頼して承認することにしよう。ゲマインデの住民投票は地域の学校の改築・拡張工事を承認するか否かだ。これは賛成。因みに、スイスの学校は住宅同様立派な設備のところが多く、管理も行き届いている。

【編集後記】

スイス人とは、勤勉な上に更に勤勉を強いられている国民ではないかと改めて思う。日々の暮らしの余暇に、これだけの内容を把握し納得のいく結論を得ようと思えば、常日頃から関心を持ち続けていなければならない。私事ながら、義母等は生前、新聞には目を通し、日に幾度もラジオの前でニュースに耳を傾けていたものだ。しばしば見解を拝聴したものだが、今でも生きていればもっと薫陶を受けられたものをと思う。

□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━【 English 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□


National Voting on June 17, 2007

The 5th revision of the disabled insurance, and local votes

Akiko Hürlimann

The Federal Government asks peoples' decision about their 5th revision of the disabled insurance law. I thought that there is only one bill to be voted on this time, however, the envelope sent to us was thicker than usual. There are seven bills to be voted on at prefecture level, and one at commune level. Furthermore, six bills at prefecture level are about a revision of the prefecture constitution, e.g. about polling; that is rather an abstract context for an ordinary person, and I felt dizzy for a moment. It's rather heavy work to study these matters properly and make a decision. All bills are proposed by the federal, prefecture, and commune authorities and we are requested to approve them. There is an option to write "Yes" for all by trusting politicians and administrators. Nevertheless, I encouraged myself and roughly tried to read through the material and reports of media.

At first, what about the federal bill. Disabled people are against the bill, so I understand the context of the bill must be severe for them. According to the explanation by the Federal Government, the aim of the bill has two points; that's to increase the working rate of disabled people, and to reduce expenditure of disabled allowance. If we leave the fund with a huge amount in the red, the state pension fund, which supports that shortage, might become in danger; they try to bring back the fund in a healthy situation. It is said that since the fund was introduced in 1960, the number of receivers nearly tripled for 15 years between 1990 and 2005, paid amounts doubled for 25 years between 1980 and 2005, and in 2006 reached SFr. 299,000 person, totally SFr. 6.4 billions. The shortage at the disabled insurance has been compensated by the state pension fund, and in 2006, the red figure was nearly a third of the state pension fund, that's 1.4% of the GDP (SFr. 455.6 billions in 2006 by JETRO). It showed that if it was continued like that, the figure would exceed more than the amount of the state pension fund in 2017. The figure is certainly frightening us.

The often visible advertising in the media is by SVP with the slogan of "Stop misuse". The parties FDP and SVP are asking for a "healthy and stable disabled insurance". Both say that the authorities are not capable to judge appropriate provisions, granting allowances to eligible persons with light (disabled) symptoms such as internet addiction, insomniac, or burnout syndrome. The taxpayer has to pay for it which is against the society. Many foreign eligible persons are also the target of criticism; it is listed up that every second eligible person is of foreign origin. Other left wing parties and labor unions are creating the campaign against it.

In fact, disabled people include also mentally disabled persons; the number hired as staff is quite small in the business field. "A compulsory law has to be introduced that every company must hire disabled people" said Mr. Ruedi Meier who is responsible for welfare in the City of Lucerne. The end of April, provocative posters were presented at mass media for a brief while. Finance Minister Merz and Interior Minister Couchepin were exhibited on wheel chair pictures, Justice Minister Blocher held a white stick, and SVP President Mr. Maurer was even put an artificial hand at his right hand side, and so on. Further more, a few days later, a caricature by a well known caricaturist covered the top page of a leading newspaper with those posters with "NO". What a provocative caricature it was! Disabled people had a hard history regarding to state support, however, today they seem to be well treated.

Disabled people must have had already a painful life, so I think it's absolutely necessary to pay special attention to working conditions of disabled. It's not the right way to cut the allowance in a democratic country without improving the working possibilities for those people. Such a situation could happen to everyone tomorrow. However, we cannot leave the explosively increasing financial burden up; it breaks the state pension fund system. Personally, I think the first thing to do is, introducing a law that obliges companies to hire a certain number of disabled people. In that point, substantive or not, at least the law is legislated in Japan as far as I know.

The polling at prefecture level consists of seven bills, e.g. a revision of the state pension fund system and polling about the prefecture constitution. The pension fund system drew an active debate, of course. Civil servants of my residential prefecture have a good reputation about their competency and motivation, both subjectively and objectively, therefore, they seem to be well treated so far. Either maintaining a system to acquire better qualified administrative staff than private institutions or not, that is the important point to consider for us. However, there is a point of view that, sooner or later, the revision of the pension fund should be done due to the demographic structure. Therefore, I would say "Yes" to an earlier engagement. Other bills are about adjective laws of election and voting. The proposals were made by local specialists, so I trust them and also vote "Yes". A bill at commune level is about the expansion and renovation of a school building. I will certainly vote "Yes" for the bill. Generally speaking, school premises in Switzerland are very good and well maintained the same as private houses.

【 Editor's comment 】

I thought again that Swiss people are diligent, but they are expected to be even more diligent. In their spare time of everyday life, if they have to understand and make a reasonable decision of those contexts, they have to keep their interest at an every day base. As a private matter, my mother in law used to read through newspaper, and listen to the radio news many times a day. I listened to her opinion from time to time. If she was still alive, I would be under her tutelage, I think.

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