SP President Cédric Wermuth is critical of the federal government’s austerity plans.Image: keystone
05.09.2024, 14:3905.09.2024, 17:11
A group of federal experts made savings proposals on Thursday. The Swiss parties reacted to them in different ways.
This is what the SVP says
The Swiss SVP welcomes the expert group’s savings proposals to ease the burden on the federal budget. However, it sees much more potential for savings – in the area of asylum, development aid, cultural subsidies “and the luxury salaries of the federal administration”.
Federal spending has almost doubled since 2000, wrote the Swiss SVP in a statement on Thursday. The state is also becoming more and more expensive: at the federal level, it cost citizens around 6,500 francs per capita in 2000. Now it is around 9,500 francs.
These are the savings suggestions:
The SVP had already submitted savings proposals with a potential of 5.5 billion francs to the expert group and Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter in April. The party will offer support for a bourgeois savings alliance with the FDP and the center in order to bring the federal finances into balance and “continue the successful debt brake.”
The SVP will reject all proposals aimed at increasing revenues or higher taxes and duties.
This is what the SP says
The SP Switzerland spoke of a “frontal attack on social Switzerland”. The expert group had set the wrong priorities and ignored important facts. The savings proposals would “set Switzerland back years” in terms of climate protection, equality and purchasing power, said SP co-president Cédric Wermuth, according to a party statement.
There is a lot of scope on the revenue side for financing key socio-political issues. “Corporations and billionaires” must be held accountable.
In a “future paper”, the SP Switzerland proposes a “renunciation of inefficient and unfair tax deductions” and a “correction of the excessive tax gifts of the neoliberal era”. To this end, the SP demands “pragmatic solidarity contributions from the capital side” and the “elimination of legal tax crime (bank secrecy).”
The debt brake also needs to be modernized. It must finally be “interpreted intelligently”: debts must be stabilized in relation to economic growth, rather than reduced.
This is what the FDP says
The FDP Switzerland welcomes the proposals. The report confirms “many of our party’s central demands,” the FDP writes in a statement.
He shows that there are numerous subsidies that could easily be cut. The authors also stated that the division of tasks between the federal government and the cantons needs to be reorganized.
The FDP also welcomes “the thrust of the Gaillard group’s main variant” to improve federal finances: “Yes to efficiency, yes to the army, no to new taxes.”
Ultimately, the report shows that savings are possible if the federal government becomes more efficient and “pointless subsidies” are eliminated. Switzerland must seize this opportunity. Then there will be enough money “for a strong army” without any problems – without new taxes.
The FDP politicians welcome the experts’ suggestions.Image: keystone
This is what the Greens say
The Greens, on the other hand, spoke of a “favorable report.” Instead of using such a report to “legitimize a massive reduction program,” the conservatives would be better off “correcting their wrong financial policy decisions.”
The federal budget was thrown out of control by the “unplanned and excessive increase in the army budget” and “the lack of willingness to reform the outdated debt brake.” The preferential treatment of the cantons in the OECD tax reform is now also proving to be a mistake in the bourgeois and Federal Council’s financial policy.
These decisions must now be reversed. The fact that a reform of the debt brake is not being considered and measures on the revenue side are not being seriously considered does not indicate that FDP Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter and the expert group are interested in an open discussion on the future of federal finances.
This is what the GLP says
For the GLP, the expert group’s savings proposals are “going in the right direction.” It is good that the group is “making a wide range of savings proposals,” the party wrote in a statement. Focusing on reducing spending is the right thing to do.
However, the GLP also calls for an examination of whether the debt brake should not be made more flexible. (sda)
This is what the middle says
The center party criticized the fact that the report focuses solely on the task side. However, the Federal Council’s order was to also examine the revenue side, it said on the short message service X. The state government must correct this in a more balanced proposal for the consultation, or reissue its order.
This is what the trade association says
The Swiss Trade Federation (SGV), on the other hand, welcomed the approach on behalf of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The main problem of federal finances – the increase in expenditure – can easily be solved with savings. The SGV rejects cuts in defence expenditure as well as measures on the revenue side. (sda)
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