Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
A place at the gala dinner? Yes. Paying for security costs? Not so much. Three weeks after the G7 summit in Evian, France, it is becoming clear that Switzerland will probably be left with the security bill despite weeks of negotiations.
Good reading!
The question was already being asked before the G7 summit in Evian, France. Will France contribute to Switzerland’s security costs? Now, three weeks after the summit, the answer is clear: Our neighbour does not want to pay.
The Swiss foreign ministry has confirmed that negotiations on France’s participation in the costs have failed.
“On the question of security costs, Switzerland and France could not agree on France’s share of the costs,” the ministry told SRF.
Police officers from many Swiss cantons were posted to Geneva for the G7 summit. In addition, 4,000 Swiss army personnel were deployed and the border was strictly guarded. No demonstrations were allowed on the French side of the border even though the G7 heads of state met in Evian on the French side of Lake Geneva. As a result the major demonstration against the summit – which resulted in riots – took place in Geneva.
According to the foreign ministry, talks with France are still ongoing, but there is little hope of a change of stance on the part of France.
“The prospect of France contributing to the security costs is low,” wrote the foreign ministry.
The only consolation, albeit a small one, is that Swiss president Guy Parmelin was allowed to attend the G7 gala dinner at the invitation of France.
The Swiss government wants to raise the VAT by 0.5 percentage points to increase the budget of the armed forces . However, the population does not appreciate this measure, as a representative survey conducted by GFS Bern on behalf of the industry and tech association Swissmem shows.
According to the survey, 66% of respondents say no to a VAT increase. The idea of a joint VAT increase for the army and pension payments also does not find a majority: 56% say no or rather no. At the same time, a majority is in favour of greater funding for the army, supporting the idea of financing rearmament through savings at the federal level.
For Swissmem Director Stefan Brupbacher, the survey result shows that the population is against growth in federal spending.
“This is a signal from the respondents to politicians: instead of spending more and more and raising taxes, the first thing to do is to save,” he says.
Social Democrat politician Priska Seiler Graf sees it quite differently. According to her, other options to raise more money for rearmament were not included in the survey. “One possibility is to relax the debt brake,” says Seiler Graf.
How the armament of the army is to be financed in the future will be discussed by the Senate in the autumn session in September.
According to SRF, the results of the survey should be taken with a grain of salt, as there has not yet been an actual referendum campaign on a VAT increase for the army. Nevertheless, the survey does provide important information,
“A tax increase for the army is so clearly rejected that parliament will probably have to consider in September whether there are still alternatives to a VAT increase.”
Since June 1, pastors, priests and other clergy in Switzerland are no longer exempt from compulsory military or civilian service. The regional churches are not happy about this, and they expressed their dissatisfaction in a letter to the government.
The Christian churches are particularly critical of the fact that the Federal Council did not consult them before the change in the law “even though the abolition of the exemption from compulsory service for clergy directly affects the work of the churches in crisis situations”.
For Alain de Raemy, responsible for military affairs at the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, the decision shows a lack of respect for the population.
“How will we proceed in times of war and crisis in the future, when the pastors have to serve in the army?” he asks RTS. For example, the churches are demanding flexible solutions from the Federal Council if their clergy have to serve in the army.
Even before the letter was sent, the defence ministry announced that the revision procedure of the Military Act had been carried out in accordance with the guidelines of the Federal Chancellery. The churches were not invited to comment because only very few members of the army, but potentially many religious communities were affected by the change.
“Writing to them all was apparently too tedious for the government,” write the CH Media newspapers . Since the change in the law, nine clergymen have been called up, according to the army.
Could you last two weeks in complete isolation on a lunar base? For ten aspiring astronauts from the vicinity of EPFL’s Space Center, the answer is hopefully yes. Starting on Sunday, they will simulate life on a lunar base in the tunnel network of the Sasso San Gottardo for two weeks.
The project was founded at EPFL in 2019 and is now taking place for the fifth time. It is considered the world’s first analogue space mission organised entirely by students. According to the initiators, the underground tunnel network of the former Gotthard fortress offers “authentic conditions” that can be found in future lunar bases.
During their stay at the simulated lunar base, students will conduct research on projects at their respective universities. There are also two Swiss who are both studying mechanical engineering.
While the tunnel network will be home for the ten students for two weeks, interested parties can visit the base and the historic fortress deep inside the mountain on Sunday – in the knowledge that they will soon return to the earth’s surface. One question that might arise is what President Guy Parmelin recently asked the astronauts on the International Space Station: “Is there wine on board?”
Translated from German, sub-edited by Anand Chandrasekhar
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