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Majority of Swiss do not support an increase in defence spending

jet
McDonnell Douglas F/A-18C Hornet fighter jet of the Swiss Air Force. Keystone / Anthony Anex

According to an international poll, 54% of Swiss residents are opposed to more funding for defence, despite the war in Ukraine. Only 12% would be prepared to send soldiers to fight alongside those from Ukraine.

A poll conducted in 15 countries and published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) shows that a majority of the population is not in favour of increasing the defence budget.

Less than a quarter support an increase in funding, according to the survey of 1,079 people in Switzerland conducted in May by Datapraxis and YouGov. A total of 12% are in favour of sending combat troops to Ukraine. Another 35% were in favour of providing technical assistance to the Ukrainian army, and 29% were in favour of patrolling the border between Ukraine and Belarus.

+ The Swiss army: your questions answered

The Federal Council is aiming for an army spending ceiling of CHF 25.8 billion ($28.6 million) for 2025-2028. The aim is to reach 1% of Switzerland’s GDP by 2035.

Translated from French by DeepL/ac

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.

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