Support for Swiss is not won. For the PS, this aid must be subject to strict conditions in the social and environmental fields. For the Greens, the rescue of the air sector without climatic conditions is not possible. It will reject the support package if it does not have binding conditions to protect the climate.
The same goes for the Green’s Liberals who propose that the transition credits to support Swiss and Edelweiss be transformed into long-term loans. The Confederation should finance these loans with green bonds and couple them with conditions for reducing greenhouse gases to zero in 2050.
Airlines, once out of the emergency to get cash, could use these resources to invest in climate protection measures.
PS and Greens: strengthening purchasing power
The socialist group is calling for further measures to strengthen purchasing power. “Within the framework of partial unemployment, wages must be guaranteed at 100%, for all incomes up to the median wage,” said the chairman of the socialist group, Roger Nordmann.
“We must also absolutely avoid an increase in health insurance premiums.” He pleads for an investment program and a fund fed by the SNB’s reserves and high incomes, to finance at least part of the costs of the crisis. The Greens are pulling the same string.
We must also absolutely avoid an increase in health insurance premiums
Roger Nordmann, president of the socialist group
The crisis also showed, according to the PS, that it is necessary to revalue certain professions, of systemic importance, but which are little recognized and badly paid.
Resumption of work welcomed
“Parliament can finally resume its democratic role,” said the PLR. His parliamentary group approves support for the aviation sector and the assistance service of the armed forces. Both this party and the center group (PDC-PBD-PEV) support the additional funds of the Federal Council as a whole, so that the funds necessary to overcome the crisis can be allocated.
In view of the events, the PLR hopes that the scientific community and the authorities will work most closely together, both to deal with this crisis and to prepare for similar crises. It also wants to improve the resilience of companies for future crises by strengthening their equity capital by deducting self-financing from direct federal tax.
The PLR group is also asking the Federal Council to advance the renewal of the mobile telephone network, as well as the general digitization of the health system or to invest specifically in research and development.
Globalization: coastering
The pandemic shows how much the Swiss economy and healthcare depend on globalization. The center group calls on the Federal Council to reduce the dependence of the Swiss economy on international supply chains for essential goods.
This week, Switzerland has taken its first steps towards a new form of normalcy, others will follow. This process will be at least as difficult as when we entered semi-containment, said the PDC.
Back to normal
The UDC wants it to return to normal as quickly as possible as the losses to the economy are significant. Monday, this party will ask for the lifting of the state of emergency, the end of payments of new subsidies on the basis of the right of emergency and the opposition to the idea that the state forces donors to renounce rents . On this last point, the group believes that it is purely and simply expropriation.
As a third of employees are partially unemployed and more than 150,000 people have lost their jobs, the training advocates suspending the free movement of people to hire priority unemployed Swiss.
Call for Michael Lauber’s resignation
Unrelated to the Coronavirus crisis, the socialist group is calling for the resignation of the Attorney General of the Confederation, Michael Lauber. According to the latest report from the Supervisory Authority of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (AS-MPC), “Michael Lauber must now draw the consequences and resign,” said Roger Nordmann.
“Otherwise, the socialist group will support the motion opening an indictment procedure in the Legal Affairs Committee.” The PS believes that it is also urgent to resolve the structural problems surrounding the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Confederation and the Federal Criminal Court.
The PS is not the only party that wants to see the attorney general turn his heels. The center group unanimously supports a dismissal request from the PBD.
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