Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Pfister criticises People’s Party calls for Amherd’s resignation

Gerhard Pfister criticizes SVP call for resignation
Pfister criticises People’s Party calls for Amherd's resignation Keystone-SDA

Gerhard Pfister, president of the Centre Party, has criticised the Swiss People's Party's demand for the resignation of the Centre Party's defence minister, Viola Amherd.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

On Saturday the rightwing Swiss People’s Party called for Amherd’s resignation, accusing her of setting the wrong priorities for the army.

For Pfister, this “culture” of calling for the resignation of a minister in office is contrary to Swiss institutions. It is also unfounded. “Viola Amherd has achieved a number of successes in her department,” Pfister told Swiss public broadcaster, RTS, on Sunday.

+ Viola Amherd named most popular Swiss minister in poll

These included the purchase of a new fighter aircraft and an increase in the army budget. Asked about the criticism levelled at Amherd, Pfister pointed out that the defence ministry is involved in some 4,000 different projects.

He acknowledged that parliament has a right of scrutiny. “Some projects are indeed complex,” he said. “We need to see how we can improve project management.”

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Most Read
Swiss Abroad

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR