The amount was pronounced at the request of a minority around the Vaudois FDP Council of States Olivier Français (67). The money is badly needed, as civil facilities are also being systematically destroyed in Ukraine, he told the Council of States on Monday. It is not about emergency humanitarian aid and certainly not about weapons, but about “often vital repairs” of destroyed infrastructure. The funds are not an increase in the budget, but redistributions of funds that “are not taken from anyone”.
Finance Minister Ueli Maurer (72) opposed this extra ‘reconstruction aid’, as he called it. “With this increase, we cannot guarantee whether the money will really be available for reconstruction or whether we will find concrete projects,” said Maurer. The planned winter support of 100 million francs is planned for this purpose, which will solve the current problems. Reconstruction aid will later become an important project, but now humanitarian aid is needed. (SDA)