Parliament wants to curb growth in social welfare benefits in the asylum system
Published: Monday, Dec 11th 2023, 17:40
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Parliament is cutting social assistance for asylum seekers, temporarily admitted persons and refugees by CHF 30 million compared to the Federal Council's proposal. On Monday, the National Council agreed with a corresponding decision by the Council of States.
The decision in the budget debate was made by 130 votes to 64 with one abstention. Accordingly, the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) will have just under CHF 1.1 billion available for social assistance in the asylum system in the coming year. Compared to 2023, expenditure is likely to grow less strongly.
The majority of the National Council's Finance Committee also supported the savings proposal. The proposal by a left-wing minority of the committee to follow the Federal Council did not find a majority, nor did the SVP's demand to cut the credit for social asylum assistance to CHF 900 million.
"Purely symbolic politics"
Sarah Wyss (SP/BS) criticized that this was pure symbolic politics - because the decisive factor was ultimately the need. The Finance Committee had only decided on the cut after it had become clear that otherwise the debt brake could not be adhered to without cutting direct payments to farmers. That was dubious.
An individual motion by David Zuberbühler (SVP/AR) to cancel the Swiss contribution of CHF 20 million to the UN Palestinian Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was also adopted. Zuberbühler justified his demand by arguing that UNRWA employees had glorified terror against Israel and that the organization was taking a one-sided stance in the Middle East conflict.
The National Council agreed with the Council of States on the "Loans and investments in developing countries" credit item and approved only CHF 25 million instead of CHF 35 million. The Council thus followed a minority of the Finance Committee led by Markus Ritter (center/SG).
Several SVP motions to cut funding for development cooperation, federal asylum centers and integration measures, as well as federal contributions to the cantons in connection with support for refugees from Ukraine, failed to gain a majority compared to the Federal Council's proposal.
SVP calls for clear priorities
Lars Guggisberg (SVP/BE) argued unsuccessfully that the focus of fiscal policy should be placed more strongly on Switzerland again. Spending abroad should not be allowed to increase any further. Prioritization was unavoidable.
Claudia Friedl (SP/SG) wanted to spend almost CHF 50 million more on development cooperation than the Federal Council. She told the Council that this would achieve the amount originally envisaged in the 2023 financial plan. On the other hand, it would result in a cut of 7.5 percent - at completely the wrong time given the global situation. Her proposal did not receive a majority.
The left also opposed the idea of compensating for additional aid for Ukraine in development cooperation with other countries. However, it did not prevail.
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