Richard Koller and the Swiss Freedom Movement

At the close of 2025—a year in which promotion of cash was one of Solari’s central messages—we noted that Switzerland seemed poised to join a handful of other Central European countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia) in constitutionally protecting the right to use cash. Against the Swiss government’s wishes, 73.4% of Swiss voters did just that on March 8.

The vote was the result of highly effective efforts by the Swiss Freedom Movement (FBS is the Swiss acronym) founded by computer scientist and entrepreneur Richard Koller in 2018. In 2025, FBS collected over 100,000 signatures to trigger a referendum to legally guarantee continued circulation of coins and banknotes. Last year, the lower house of parliament managed to circumnavigate the government’s attempt to block the amendment so that it could be voted into passage two weeks ago.

Koller’s website announces that he stands for, among other cherished principles, protection of cash, physical self-determination (during the Covid years, the FBS tried to get a measure on the ballot that would have protected citizens from professional or social retribution if they declined Covid shots), digital self-determination (Koller says, “Digital yes, but free!”), national sovereignty, freedom of speech, food security (supported by independent small farmers), and Switzerland’s unique brand of direct democracy.

That nearly three-quarters of Swiss voters endorsed the cash amendment is all the more impressive in that cash use has declined (as of 2024) to only 30% of in-shop transactions, down from 70% in 2017. At the same time, according to a Fortune article quoted by journalist Nick Corbishley, every Swiss inhabitant holds, on average, “the equivalent of $10,481 in bills and coins,” which is “the second-largest holding of all economies” tracked by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

The publication Swissinfo condescendingly says that no one expects the March vote to “slow down the declining importance of notes and coins in everyday life,” but it also quotes cash-friendly anthropologist Brett Scott, who outlines numerous reasons why people around the world remain attached to cash.

One of those is its “informal economy element”:

“Lots of people like to preserve an informal sphere for themselves—they don’t want institutions between themselves and their life. Collection plates in church or poker games at home would be strange without cash. Who wants to use a Visa card in church?”

Commenting on events in Switzerland and elsewhere, Corbishley notes that the European Central Bank (ECB) is not pleased with European countries’ move to constitutionally protect cash. Following Slovakia’s cash-protection actions in 2023,

“[T]he ECB … pledged to work together with banks, arguably the biggest enemies of cash, to ensure that communities across the Euro Area will have adequate access to cash services, bringing to mind foxes and chicken coops.”

As defenders of financial transaction freedom, we agree on the need to keep an eye on foxes guarding hen houses. In that context, the fact that Koller, the FBS, and Swiss voters got their cash amendment across the finish line is all the more reason for celebration.