Berner Platte – the Blick column: Poor, poorer, army

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Switzerland speculates on how poorly its military is doing. How much money is missing? Where is the problem? Who made what mistakes? Will the Federal President finally stand up?

Maybe this is all a great marketing coup. The result: more money.

It all started with the cancellation of major army events. Discussions immediately began about the military’s financial situation. Subsequently, SRF published confidential documents showing a financial hole of 1.4 billion francs.

The army leadership explained that this had to do with the delayed increase in the budget. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, parliament decided in 2022 to give the army one percent of GDP by 2030. But the Federal Council decided a few weeks later to grant the increase until 2035. Now the military is taking the position that it has a huge financial problem because it is missing out on more than $10 billion due to the slower schedule. Really within three weeks?

However, the cause of the financial problem is not the government’s delay, but the F-35 fighter jet.

The Federal Council’s planning decision never mentioned additional money for the aircraft. Was that a political calculation? The military was aware that the vote for fighter jets could not be won by requesting additional billions.

The military’s budget will double to nearly ten billion by 2035. The Ministry of Defense was the only one excluded from the cross-cutting cuts in the 2024 budget. Yet there is now a financial gap and the army does not want to say what is going on. Politicians are again under pressure to spend more money. That’s absurd. The military is not in control of its finances and instead of addressing the leadership deficit, more money should be put into the military. And the responsible federal councilor remains silent.

* Aline Trede is leader of the Green Party in the National Council and an environmental scientist. She writes for us every second Sunday – in rotation with SVP National Councilor Alfred Heer.

Source:Blick