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This is how the Swiss parties are reacting to the federal government’s decision that Germany is not allowed to deliver Swiss ammunition to Ukraine.
On Sunday it became known that Switzerland had prevented arms deliveries from Germany with Swiss ammunition to Ukraine. After this decision, Mitte Party President Gerhard Pfister asked the Federal Council to allow the ammunition delivery. In a tweet he wrote that he had the authority to enable the export of Swiss arms components to Ukraine.
This is how the parties react
Jürg Grossen, President of the Green Liberals, says that the Federal Council cannot decide this on its own, but should submit a proposal to Parliament: “Weapons or at least ammunition that are delivered via Germany should also be used in Ukraine. If we want that, we would have to initiate a change in the law.” This could already be decided in the special session at the beginning of May, says Grossen.
The leader of the Greens, Aline Trede, sees it differently: “Switzerland’s neutrality clearly prohibits it from supplying weapons to war-mongering nations or indirectly war-mongering nations.” Therefore, the decision of the federal government is correct.
Neutrality clearly prohibits Switzerland from supplying arms to belligerent nations or indirectly belligerent nations.
SVP Councilor of States Werner Salzmann also rejects a relaxation of the law and refers to the law of neutrality and the War Material Act. “The primary concern is neutrality, because we are violating the law of neutrality with such exports to countries involved in the war,” says Salzmann.
It is clear that Swiss neutrality must not be curtailed at its core.
FDP President Thierry Burkart says that an adjustment to arms export legislation must be discussed. “But one thing is clear: Swiss neutrality must not be curtailed at its core. This means that direct deliveries to warring parties should not be allowed in the future either.”
Therefore, the Seco has rejected the requests
At the request of SRF, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco) confirmed that two requests from Germany to pass on ammunition previously received from Switzerland to Ukraine had been received. “The two inquiries from Germany were not about ammunition for the ‘Marder’ infantry fighting vehicle,” writes the Seco.
For exports of war material to government end recipients, Switzerland basically requires a so-called non-re-export declaration from the recipient country – i.e. the recipient country undertakes not to pass on the war material received from Switzerland without Switzerland’s prior consent.
In addition, a new regulation was recently introduced so that no individual components of weapon systems reach Russia or Ukraine via European countries, the Seco explains.
For all final exports to non-governmental final recipients, a confirmation must be submitted that the war material will not be re-exported, sold, rented, loaned or donated to either the Russian Federation or Ukraine. This is a precautionary measure.
The origin of the inquiries is unclear
The application rejected by Switzerland did not come from the federal government, but from industry, a German government spokesman told SRF at a media conference on Monday. The Ministry of Defense cannot comment on the exact time of the application because the application came from industry.
The Seco, on the other hand, writes to SRF that Germany’s inquiries did not come from industry, but from a German authority.