Posted24 avril 2022, 09:53
After the pandemic, the war in Ukraine. This time once more, the Federal Council should have been better prepared and acted more quickly, some believe. Today’s German-speaking Swiss press echoes these critical voices.
The first hours of the management of the Ukrainian crisis by the Federal Council are not unanimous. In the columns of the “SonntagsBlick”, it is the SVP national councilor Alfred Heer who is leading the charge. “The Federal Council had no scenario in its drawers in case Putin actually invaded the country.” According to the Zurich man, it would have been necessary to “understand Poutine”. (…) We would then have understood that his threats are not empty words. We might have been better prepared for a wave of refugees.” Note that the elected representative does not forget to recall the position of his party, according to which the European sanctions once morest Russia taken up by Switzerland are “arbitrary”.
The president of the management of the umbrella organization Economiesuisse, Monika Rühl, questioned by the “NZZ am Sonntag”, asks for the establishment of “a permanent crisis unit”, to compensate for what she describes as “moments of inertia”. This body would be made up of managers from the various federal departments, as well as specialists called in on a case-by-case basis.
The Delegation of the Management Commissions of the Federal Parliament split itself, it, of a rather salty letter with regard to the executive and the administration. She criticizes an insufficient preparation of the Federal Council, reported this week “Le Temps”.
Crisis unit not on the agenda
A little background: some took a dim view of the press conference at the start of the war. The President of the Confederation Ignazio Cassis had read a declaration there for seven minutes, then slipped away on tiptoe. The government resumed EU sanctions four days later. A waiting time that some consider too long.
So, a good idea, this permanent crisis staff? Vice-Chancellor and government spokesman André Simonazzi replies in the “NZZ am Sonntag” that the Federal Council has concluded that it is better to work more quickly and intensively with ordinary structures.
(ami)
