At the end of a hearing with Swiss Defense Minister Viola Amherd, the country's House of Representatives Finance Committee informed that the military does not have a funding problem but an information problem.
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| The Swiss lower house of parliament reviews a proposal to increase the military budget. (Source: AFP) |
The information was released after SRF television revealed the problem the Swiss military is facing, which is a lack of 1.4 billion francs (1.6 billion USD) by the end of 2025 to pay for weapons deals that have already been made.
Shortly afterwards, the commander of the European National Army, General Thomas Süssli, added that the army was not short of money, but rather had a liquidity problem.
This week, Defense Secretary Amherd, who serves as the rotating president of Switzerland, gave a lengthy speech about the problems facing the military.
According to her, the information about the military being unable to pay its bills is false. Therefore, many reports suggest that there is disagreement between Secretary Viola Amherd and the generals.
Returning to the hearing, House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sarah Wyss said: “All the open questions have been cleared up. We will not be taking any further action. The information provided today was complete and transparent and clear.
However, the issue was clarified when the Ministry of Defense found that information related to the financial story was not clarified. There were mistakes. Minister Amherd also recognized this problem and said that it would not be repeated.
The information gaps may be due to the fact that the head of the army, General Süssli, gave an interview with unclear information, especially after the SRF report. Internal army documents cited by the station also mentioned the liquidity crunch.
However, Ms. Wyss said the written and verbal statements were “inaccurate.”
“There is no financial gap in the armed forces and there is no liquidity bottleneck. From the perspective of financial policy, everything is fine and everything is right,” the official stressed.
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