Come on, kick! Soldiers are back in the snow. In Wengen BE, where the Lauberhorn races take place this weekend, 450 men and women from Infantry Battalion 97 are helping. Dressed in green, they prepare the slopes and help set up and dismantle the infrastructure. “Without an army, a Lauberhorn race would simply not be possible,” says OC chairman Urs Näpflin (63) in anticipation.
The support of civilian or off-duty activities with military means, as the federal government calls these operations, attracts criticism year after year. A video showing army personnel shoveling snow late at night sparked scathing comments on Twitter last week: “The best snow clearing army in the world.”
Politicians are ready to make concessions to ensure that the ski races are held in Wengen or Adelboden BE: “On the one hand, it hurts to see these pictures,” said Mauro Tuena (50, SVP), chairman of the Security Policy Committee in the National Council. “On the other hand, the races could not take place without the involvement of the military.”
20,000 service days
It sounds similar from committee members of the SP. Priska Seiler Graf (54) says she is fundamentally critical of army operations without a training character, but does not want to act as a Lauberhorn preventer. Her fellow party member Min Li Marti (48) is just as pragmatic. It’s a matter of consideration, says the Zurich woman: “I don’t have strong feelings about this.”
This year, the army will serve just over 20,000 days in support of civilian affairs, says army spokesman Daniel Reist, 64. Before Corona, there were almost 25,000, in the peak year of 2016 even 33,600. In the future, however, the number of these external working days will decrease. The reason is a change in the military law that has been in force since 1 January. Events that have no significant use for training or exercise for members of the military should be reduced.
What does that mean for soldiers shoveling snow in Wengen? Army spokesman Reist: “It is too early to talk about specific reasons or the scope of the reduction.”