Defense Minister Viola Amherd: I’m sticking with the head of the army
Published: Saturday, Feb 24th 2024, 03:10
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Defense Minister Viola Amherd continues to stand by army commander Thomas Süssli: "Of course I'm sticking by army commander Süssli," said Amherd.
The two agree on closing the emerging "capability gaps" in the army as quickly as possible, Amherd said in an interview with the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" published on Saturday. "But we have a different focus. His job is to look after the army and security. I have to take an overall view."
According to Amherd, gaps in the army's network systems cannot be completely avoided. "This means that there will inevitably be temporary gaps when the old systems reach the end of their service life and we have not yet been able to procure the new ones due to a lack of funds," said the Defense Minister. "It will be important for us to be able to procure a certain number of the systems at any one time in order to at least continue the training and thus maintain the troops' expertise."
Amherd and Süssli criticized
Amherd and Süssli have recently come under criticism: at the end of January, Swiss Radio and Television (SRF) reported on an internal administrative document according to which the Swiss Armed Forces will lack 1.4 billion Swiss francs by the end of 2025 to pay for armaments purchases that have already been made. The following day, army chief Süssli put the initial situation into perspective: the army does not have a billion-franc shortfall, but a liquidity bottleneck. Amherd countered that the army could pay its bills.
This led to a hearing before the National Council's Finance Committee (FK-N) last week. The committee came to the conclusion that the army does not have a financing problem, but a communication problem.
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