Despite criticism, the Federal Council has confirmed most of its austerity program to “balance” federal finances. At the origin of these measures decried, the former senior federal official Serge Gaillard defended Thursday in the morning the principle of a budgetary rigor of circumstance.
First secretary of the Swiss union union from 1993 to 2006, Serge Gaillard then went on the other side of the Barricade to take the lead in the Labor Division at the State Secretariat for the Economy, then direct the Federal Finance Administration from 2012 to 2022, ten years during which he led a rather liberal policy.
Now retired, he presided over the year the group responsible for proposing savings that served as the basis for the work of the Federal Council. But while the final result does not satisfy the left, the right, the cantons, the debates in the parliament promise to be heated and the referendum almost inevitable.
>> Read on this subject: The 2027 Confederation saving program revised a little downwards
A context of rigor
Invited Thursday in the morning, this doctor in economics is however to minimize the weight of this budgetary reduction. “I would not speak of austerity. We are talking about three billion for 2029, it is not even 4% of the expenses of the Confederation. These are adaptations that can be made without great pain,” he said. “Parliament must be ready to make decisions and fix the priorities. I’m sure it will lead to a result.”
In politics, there is always a choice. But I think it’s a good choice to respect the debt brake
According to the former trade unionist, these cuts respond to a specific context. “We knew that this decade would be difficult” due to expenses related to the aging of the population and to health, he notes. Added to this is a revival of arms expenditure in an ever more bellicose international context.
However, he concedes that these budgetary options are not inevitable. “In politics, there is always the choice. But I think it is a good choice to respect the brake on debt. Switzerland has had good experiences with this principle”, he positions himself, believing that if we soften it, “we would repeat the problems of a few years but we would not solve them”.
An enemy: subsidies
Asked about the choice of recommending reductions in spending rather than revenue increases, Serge Gaillard recalls that increases are already planned to finance the 13th AVS rent, “which strengthens foresight but costs 4.2 or 4.3 billion,” he said. “In any case, it will be necessary to increase the recipes on this side, so why not endeavor to lighten the budget of the Confederation a little, knowing that we have constantly increased for 20 years and that we have created a lot of subsidies that we do not really need.”
And the ex-federal ex-functionary to embark on an anti-Subventing diatribe: “In each law in Switzerland, we provide the possibility of paying subsidies! And as soon as an organization, or worse, a economic sector receives one, it does everything to maintain and increase it. Each subsidy creates an association which fights for this subsidy. And in the worst case, this association will still be funded by subsidies.”
I am always a member of the PS. I think that being on the left is not maximizing state spending is above all ensuring that money is used in an economical way
According to Serge Gaillard, the financial context of the past decade has created room for maneuver for the Confederation and “she was right to take advantage of it to better support the cantons,” he said. “But today, we could expect cantons that they participate in the discussions and that they do not defend themselves as lobbyists against each measure which could affect their finances,” he says.
The former economist thus advocates having more use of other options, such as legal obligations, in particular in terms of ecology. “I am always a member of a union and the PS,” he recalls. “We don’t all have the same opinion, but I think being on the left is not maximizing state spending, it is above all ensuring that money is used in a economical way.”
Interview by Pietro Bugnon
Web text: Pierrik Jordan
