Federal budget 2024 almost suffers shipwreck in the National Council
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 21:20
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The National Council approved the federal budget on Monday evening with a majority of just four votes. It only complies with the debt brake thanks to a trick: at the last minute, the large chamber cut the appropriations for the railroad infrastructure fund by CHF 18 million.
The Council had actually already decided on the contribution to the fund hours earlier. However, because the budget had a structural deficit of CHF 17.4 million after the detailed discussion, it was in danger of failing in the overall vote.
This would have been tantamount to a referral back to the Federal Council. If the Council of States had subsequently stuck to its earlier decisions, the National Council and its Finance Committee would have had to start the discussion of the budget all over again.
"The only solution"
Against this backdrop, Center Party leader Philipp Matthias Bregy (VS) proposed to the Council before the overall vote that it return to the earlier decision on the rail infrastructure fund.
The CHF 18 million cut is not a good solution, but it is currently the only one, said Bregy. "Another solution will have to be found next year."
Last week, the Council of States also only adopted a budget that complies with the debt brake thanks to an accounting trick. It wrote a credit freeze into the bill - i.e. an instruction to the Federal Council not to utilize the approved credits. This path was not open to the National Council in the first round of consultations.
The large chamber ultimately adopted the budget by 79 votes to 75 with 40 abstentions. The left wing of the Council voted almost unanimously against the budget, which only received a majority because the majority of the SVP parliamentary group abstained from voting.
Left criticizes army spending
This was preceded by a controversial discussion on Bregy's request for a return. Sarah Wyss (BS) reiterated the SP parliamentary group's criticism of the increase in army spending and called for a debate on the debt brake. In the afternoon, the Council had rejected several proposals from the left-wing of the Council to reduce the credits for the Defense Department.
Felix Wettstein (SO) demanded on behalf of the Green parliamentary group that it should be left to the Finance Commission to decide in which areas cuts should be made.
SVP parliamentary group spokesman Lars Guggisberg (BE) criticized Bregy's proposed solution as unsustainable. They only agreed to the request for a return out of common sense. Guggisberg lamented that his party had been making savings proposals for years, but had not been able to push them through. The SVP had proposed cuts, particularly in the areas of asylum and development cooperation, but had not succeeded.
"I miss the victim symmetry"
Alex Farinelli (FDP/TI) said that we were in the midst of an "accounting exercise". He warned against touching the debt brake.
The GLP voted in favor of both the request for a return and the budget. Beat Flach (AG) criticized, however, that he missed the symmetry of sacrifice. In his view, the amount could easily have been saved in agriculture.
Like the Council of States before it, the National Council decided last Thursday to leave the funds for direct payments to farmers at the 2023 level. The Federal Council had proposed a reduction of 2% or CHF 54.8 million.
Parliament also wants to spend more money on promoting Swiss wine, rare livestock breeds and protecting livestock than the national government.
Parliament is also more willing to spend on regional passenger transport than the national government. The latter had requested a cut of five million francs compared to the current year, but Parliament decided to increase it by 55 million francs instead.
The Council of States' turn
In return, Parliament cut funding for social assistance for asylum seekers, temporarily admitted persons and refugees by CHF 30 million compared to the Federal Council's proposal.
The National Council also canceled the Swiss contribution of CHF 20 million to the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The Council of States will now have to deal with this idea next Thursday.
Another financially significant difference concerns the promotion of business locations in the regions. The lower chamber wants to pay 25 million into the corresponding fund, while the National Council wants to forego a payment in 2024.
In the second round of deliberations, the Council of States is likely to try to trim the budget so that it complies with the debt brake without any financial policy tricks.
©Keystone/SDA
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