Keller-Sutter gets help with savings: ex-trade unionist has to put red pencil

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 iQNQmc”>

The federal government needs to save. In the coming years he will lose up to four billion francs per year. And due to the 13th AHV pension and the planned investments in the army, expenditure will grow significantly faster than income in the coming years. This means that the debt brake cannot be respected.

But saving is difficult: many expenses are tied up, which means that the federal government cannot simply put the red pencil on it. And so the Federal Council regularly cuts all expenses it can save on.

This should end. The Federal Council has established a five-member group of experts to examine the tasks and subsidies of the federal government. By the end of the summer, she should tell the Federal Council where to bring down the austerity hammer.

Trade unionists and neoliberals

The red pencil team is led by Serge Gaillard (69). The economist led the Labor Directorate of the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (Seco) for many years. Before that, he was chief economist of the Swiss Trade Union Federation for eight years – of all people who are now increasing the financial problem of the federal treasury with the 13th AHV pension. However, some former comrades wonder how left-wing Gaillard still is. Because he headed the financial administration under Finance Ministers Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf (67) and Ueli Maurer (73) – and, especially under the second, has proven to be just as much of a saver as his boss.

Gaillard is ideologically balanced by Christoph Schaltegger (52). The economist comes from a right-wing liberal background, was a personal advisor to the then FDP Minister of Finance Hans-Rudolf Merz (81) and then switched to the economic umbrella organization Economiesuisse. In 2010 he was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Lucerne. Today he runs the privately funded Institute for Swiss Economic Policy (IWP) together with former NZZ editor-in-chief René Scheu (50), who is also a right-wing citizen.

Farmers and conservationists have nothing to fear

Farmers are also represented in the group: former national councilor Jacques Bourgeois (65), the former director of the Swiss farmers’ association, should find useless or counterproductive subsidies. Given the industry’s clever lobbying, the bet is risky: the group will hardly find unnecessary donations for agriculture.

Nature and environmental protection also have little to worry about. Because Freiburg’s former federal councilor Ursula Schneider Schüttel (62) has an experienced financial politician on board, but also the chairman of nature conservation organization Pro Natura.

The report should be available by the end of summer

The group of five is completed by Aymo Brunetti (60), the liberal economist who is not averse to a strong state and has sat on almost every expert committee for the federal government. Gaillard and Brunetti have a long history together. They like each other personally, but had many arguments when Brunetti was the federal government’s chief economist and Gaillard’s chief financial officer.

It will be interesting to see what red pencil potential this illustrious group discovers. We will know more by the end of the summer at the latest: then the bargain hunters will have to submit their ideas to the Federal Council.

Source:Blick