Federal Council to take stock of army deployment during corona
Published: Monday, Dec 18th 2023, 16:00
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The Federal Council is to conduct an in-depth review of the deployment of the armed forces and civil defense during the Covid-19 pandemic. On Monday, the Council of States referred a corresponding postulate from its Control Committee (CC-S).
The Federal Council should analyze the tasks assumed and services rendered by the army and civil defence on behalf of the cantons - and take stock of this deployment in terms of finances, personnel resources and logistics. According to the text of the postulate, it should also explain whether the internal administrative processes for such a mobilization of the army and civil defence are appropriate.
The Federal Council should also explain what lessons can be learned from this case for the support of the cantons by the army and civil defense with regard to future crises of a larger scale.
The GPK-S considers it important for the Federal Council to take stock of the deployment of the army and civil defense to support cantonal law enforcement during the Covid-19 crisis, said Council of States member Marco Chiesa (SVP/TI). This was because there had never been such a large-scale deployment before - and it had played a central role in overcoming the pandemic.
The Federal Council also requested that the GPK-S postulate be transferred: "From the point of view of the DDPS, it is right and important to analyze the extensive deployment of civil defence and the army," said Federal Councillor Viola Amherd, Head of the Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS).
The evaluation of internal administrative processes for the deployment and mobilization of civil defence and the army is central to this, Amherd continued. "We can and must learn and improve for the future," said Amherd.
In mid-October of the current year, the CPC-S assessed the cooperation between the Confederation and the cantons during the pandemic as mediocre in a report. In the opinion of the CPC-S, the cantons were only partially involved in the federal government's crisis organization.
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