Fighter jet: The royal road to the F-35A

The capitalist coalition performed flawlessly in defending the F-35 acquisition in the National Assembly this Thursday. Federal Council on June 30, 2021 And must be ordered before March 31st. The State Council had already taken such a decision in June. The initiative filed against the purchase of American aircraft did not have a suspensive effect and was considered irrelevant: “This does not affect the material in question today, announced Thomas Hurter (SVP/SH). If we do not sign the contract, we will lose our production space and the aircraft will be delivered too late. The war in Europe is back. , we should not miss the boat.

But for ecologist Mariona Schlatter (V/ZH), the proposal had to be sent back: “Why? Because this purchase presents a complex financial risk to Switzerland 100,000 people want to express this question. It’s the wrong plane for air policing and has made America dependent on it for decades. It is for the people to choose, but the government and parliament trample on the rights of the people. In 2020, 49.9% said they would not buy a fighter jet. In order not to be undemocratic, it is necessary to allow referendums on people’s initiative”.

Socialist Prisca Seeler Graf (PS/ZH) reminded military leader Viola Amherd that she had promised when the initiative was launched that people would vote, but had changed her mind because of the war in Ukraine: “I have great respect for you,” she told her, “but here I am for you.” Not followed.

Pierre-Alain Fridez (PS/JU), author of a book worthy of this purchase “Government Corruption”, reiterated his attacks on the suitability of the “American stealth bomber”, the flight time advantage granted to the F-35, the lack of transparency of its evaluation, the unequal treatment between bidders and the financial risks associated with its development. . “My book will become a collector’s item in the future,” he joked.

But perhaps not Viola Amherd, who defended the urgency of the situation: “We have to modernize the military faster than we expected,” she said. Airspace security is an absolute priority. He therefore defended signing the agreement before March 31: “Even if the implementation of the initiative cannot be completed before this date. The Stop F-35 initiative was not tabled quickly enough, only on August 16, while other countries such as Germany, Canada and Finland ordered significant numbers of F-35As.

Viola Amherd won the game in any case, backed by the National Council’s right to buy 36 F-35A aircraft for more than 6 billion francs. To Jacqueline de Quattro (PLR/VD): “Acquired on September 27, 2021 by decision of the Swiss people accepting credit for new fighter jets. It is the perfect choice for Switzerland. And to cite some of the countries that bought it: the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Finland and Germany: “In other words, the F-35A is the most common fighter in NATO and in NATO. European union!”

Ida Glanzmann-Hunkeler (C/LU) described the left’s strategy as “pure delaying tactics”: “The Greens don’t want this aircraft. Those who signed the initiative think so, but people’s attitudes have changed since the start of the war. The initiative wants us to abandon this type of aircraft, but the military’s We should not interfere with operational capabilities. Speakers from the UDC, PLR, Center or the Liberal Greens fully supported the purchase in the context of the war in Ukraine. As Rocco Cattaneo (PLR / TI): “This is a question that will give a strong impetus to the defense of Switzerland for the next thirty years”.

In this debate, despite all the critical arguments presented, the outcome of the conflict is never in doubt. In the referendum, proposals for impeachment from the left were destroyed by 67 to 128 votes. Pierre-Alain Frides lamented the lack of debate among his bourgeois peers with “marbled” positions that were immune to criticism. And tell them about the F-35 they want to buy: “No Swiss pilot has ever been able to fly this single-seat aircraft”.