National Council cuts CHF 70 million from federal staff

With the cuts in personnel costs, material and operating expenses and consultancy fees, the National Council wants to relieve the budget by a total of CHF 125 million. With these initial decisions on Tuesday, it followed the conservative majority of its Finance Committee (FK-N). The left rejected the cuts.

"Too many and too expensive orders"

Jürg Grossen (GLP/BE) said that private companies could not keep up with the salaries of administrative staff. The federal government was awarding too many and too expensive external contracts. Reto Nause (Center/BE) also supported the three proposals of the committee majority, saying that the cuts would merely slow down the growth in expenditure.

SVP spokesperson Michael Götte (SG) saw the Confederation's personnel expenditure and expenditure on consultations getting out of hand. The FDP also considered the cuts of CHF 125 million to be justifiable, as Peter Schilliger (LU) said. Parliament had a management mandate.

The Red-Greens opposed these cuts in vain. Tamara Funiciello (SP/BE) said that staff would have to accept the fourth round of cuts. Irène Kälin (Greens/AG) wanted targeted cuts instead of "politically cowardly cross-sectional cuts" that could cause a lot of damage.

Sarah Wyss (SP/BS) saw contradictions in the FK-N's proposals. At the State Secretariat for Migration, for example, interpreters would be part of the material and operating expenses. "If this is reduced, asylum procedures will take longer." Or feasibility studies on army projects could not be commissioned due to a lack of funds.

Cutbacks at the Office for Consumer Affairs

Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter did not want the cuts either. If the councillors cut CHF 70 million from personnel expenditure in 2025, it would take precedence over the relief package, she said. The Federal Council would take the cut into account there.

Keller-Sutter said that the Federal Council had already cut material and operating expenses and the consulting budget by 3.4 percent each. The Confederation is dependent on external services.

The National Council cut the budget of the Institute for Comparative Law by CHF 0.6 million, again against the wishes of the left and the Federal Council. And it wants to make CHF 145,000 or 14 percent less available to the Office of Consumer Affairs. The SP, Greens and GLP opposed this cut.

Discussion of the budget in the National Council is expected to continue until next Thursday. The Council of States will then deal with the budget, financial planning and supplementary credits.