On 27 November 2005, Vaud voters decide on the second « Save Lavaux » popular initiative, launched by Franz Weber and his foundation. The backdrop is unusual: the full revision of the Vaud cantonal constitution, in force since 2003, had dropped the article that for decades had specifically protected the terraced vineyards. The initiative seeks precisely to write it back, in black and white, into the canton's new founding charter.
Lavaux — the terraced vineyard slopes overlooking Lake Geneva between Lausanne and Montreux — has enjoyed pioneering protection ever since Franz Weber's very first initiative, accepted in 1977. Nearly thirty years on, the stakes are unchanged: to build a solid legal bulwark against property pressure and urban sprawl in one of French-speaking Switzerland's most emblematic landscapes.
The debate pits two logics against each other: on one side, landscape and heritage protection carved into the constitution; on the other, the flexibility of ordinary municipal planning. Broadly backed, the initiative meets only marginal opposition. The question is whether this constitutional lock has held.
▲ The ballot verdict The « Save Lavaux » initiative is carried by a landslide of roughly 81 % yes. Protection of the terraced vineyards is written back into the Vaud constitution. | ▼ Marginal opposition The no vote stays firmly in the minority (around 19 %). The few opponents felt a constitutional entry duplicated existing planning tools. |
The two camps
▲ Yes camp • « Save Lavaux » association and the Franz Weber Foundation (initiators) • Helvetia Nostra and heritage and landscape protection circles • A broad span of parties and a French-speaking public strongly in favour of protecting Lavaux | ▼ No camp • Scattered opponents from construction and planning circles • A few elected officials who felt a specific constitutional protection duplicated ordinary law |
Arguments and verdicts
▲ Arguments FOR (Yes camp) Only constitutional protection keeps Lavaux safe from concrete. « Anchor the site's protection durably in the constitution » (initiators' argument, 2005). ✓ Confirmed. Twenty years on, Lavaux remains one of Switzerland's best-preserved landscapes. The constitutional lock held: no massive sprawl has disfigured the terraces, and the protection survived every later assault. Source: swissinfo, « 50 years ago Franz Weber founded Sauver Lavaux ». The entrenchment strengthens the World Heritage bid. « A strong protection status makes international recognition credible » (supporters' argument, 2005). ✓ Confirmed. Just two years after the vote, in 2007, Lavaux is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Strong cantonal protection proved a decisive asset of the bid. Source: UNESCO, inscription of Lavaux (2007); RTS. | ▼ Arguments AGAINST (No camp) A specific constitutional protection is superfluous: planning is enough. « Ordinary planning law already protects the site » (opponents' argument, 2005). ✗~ Partly disproved. Later battles — the « Save Lavaux III » initiative (2014), then the cantonal land-use plan still debated in 2024 — showed property pressure had not vanished. The strong 2005 anchor was therefore far from redundant. Source: RTS, cantonal vote of 18 May 2014. Freezing Lavaux will smother winegrowers and municipalities. « Too many constraints will hurt local life and viticulture » (opponents' argument, 2005). ✗~ Partly disproved. Viticulture and tourism in fact flourished, buoyed by the UNESCO label and the site's fame. Tensions over building constraints did persist, however, for the municipalities concerned. Source: Vaud cantonal tourism office; RTS. |
The reckoning, twenty years on
History's verdict strongly favours the initiators. The 2005 constitutional protection held, UNESCO crowned the site in 2007, and Lavaux remains a European benchmark for protecting vineyard landscapes. But the concrete war never fully ceased: each decade brought its project, its appeal, its ballot.
27.11.2005 Date of the vote | ≈ 81 % Yes to the initiative (accepted) | 2007 UNESCO inscription | n/a Turnout |
With nearly 81 % yes, the 2005 vote amounts to a plebiscite. Vaud voters fix what the 2003 constitutional revision had erased: by an overwhelming majority, they write Lavaux's specific protection back into their founding charter.
The initiators' wager proved visionary. UNESCO World Heritage status, secured as early as 2007, vindicated the case for strong protection and turned a local fight into an international symbol of landscape conservation.
Yet what followed proved the prophets of an endless battle right, rather than the opponents who deemed protection pointless. « Save Lavaux III » in 2014, then the land-use plan debated in 2024, were reminders that property pressure never fully stands down.
Twenty years on, Lavaux remains a textbook case: direct democracy managed to raise a lasting landscape rampart — provided one accepts returning to the front at regular intervals.