Swiss agriculture spared from austerity cuts

Swiss agriculture is spared from the austerity hammer Keystone-SDA

Swiss agriculture will be spared the government's austerity measures from 2026 to 2029.

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On Monday the Senate approved two committee motions to increase a federal decree by CHF361 million ($404 million) with clear majorities. The two chambers have thus decided that Swiss agriculture will receive around CHF14.2 billion over the next four years – the same amount as in 2022-2025.

The government wanted to reduce the contributions by 1.6% compared to today because agriculture also had to make a contribution to the recovery of the federal budget. This is what the government said when it presented the federal resolution last year.

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However, the tenor of the majority in parliament was that federal expenditure had increased in many areas in recent years – but not in agriculture. It was thus wrong to make savings for farmers, they said.

Translated from German by DeepL/ts

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