The Civil Defense has almost no personnel left. The number of recruitments has been falling for years and the number has already fallen below the target. The security politicians in the National Council therefore see an urgent need for action. Your demand: Civil defense and community service should be merged. And subito!
The sister committee in the Council of States had already expressed itself a few months ago in favor of merging the two services. The Federal Council is currently examining various options to secure the stocks.
“We must respond now!”
From the point of view of Mauro Tuena (50, SVP), chairman of the National Council’s Security Policy Committee, the problem is too acute to waste time on clarifications. “We have to react now!”, says the SVP Member of Parliament.
The bourgeois have triumphed with their demand against the left, which warn of a mock solution. “Combining the civil service and civil defense would be an absolute paradigm shift,” said SP councilor Priska Seiler Graf (54), who is also co-chair of the civil service association Civiva. One that cannot be realized overnight.
weakening of the civil service
Seiler Graf points out that the two organizations are fundamentally different: the cantons are responsible for civil defense, while civilian service is a matter for the federal government. “Merging the two services would take years,” she is convinced. She accuses the civilian colleagues that they are not trying to save the civil defense, but above all to weaken the civil service.
There is no mention of this in the Commission’s press release. But Commission President Tuena is not hiding that this is also at stake. Today, too many conscripts would take the “back door to civilian service.” “We make it too easy for people to avoid the military and civil defense,” he criticizes.
National Council has persevered
At the initiative of the SVP, the National Council recently spoke out in favor of stricter rules for community service. This after he rejected a tightening at the last minute two years ago.
Proposals are already on the table to remedy the existing civil protection problem in the short term. For example, the Federal Council would like civil servants to be able to carry out part of their civil defense service in cantons with an acute shortage of personnel.