On Thursday, the Swiss parliament agreed to lift the spending brake on development cooperation to the tune of CHF9.31 billion.
However, this is less than the CHF9.66 billion requested by the Federal Council and twice accepted by the Senate. The latter will have to vote again.
On Monday, the deputies had refused to lift the spending brake, as the qualified majority of 101 votes had not been reached. On Thursday, they gave the go-ahead by 129 votes to 66. Only the Swiss People’s Party was against.
Previously, this party, supported some centrists, had managed to reduce the budget by CHF351 million. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis warned in vain that the cuts would primarily affect Ukraine.
Translated from German by DeepL/mga
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