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- So far, seven cantons have requested support from the army.
- They requested a total of 31 services, such as support with care in hospitals or patient transport.
- However, the federal government has only approved 18 of the 31 services requested.
Thomas Herren, Head of the Federal Resource Management Unit, explains: “Eleven services were rejected and two were completely withdrawn by one canton.” Not only the cantons have called in the armed forces: the Secretary of State for Migration SEM also wanted members of the armed forces, to support them with care in the asylum centers.
But the Federal Council has not foreseen this in the current deployment of the army. And then the SEM shut down. “The SEM request comprised 17 services. However, these were rejected, ”says Herren.
Violation of the principle of subsidiarity
The federal government rejected the applications mainly because they violated the principle of subsidiarity. Because before the cantons call in the army, they would have to exhaust all other means and also seek the free market, Herren said.
“If, for example, they need material that can be bought elsewhere, then they have to buy it there so as not to compete in the market. Then it will not be available from the federal government. “
In the second crown wave, the federal government gave more cautious approval to army operations for the cantons.
Keystone
The canton of Bern, for example, received less from the army than it wanted. The canton has requested ten ambulance vehicles and 20 members of the army, says the spokesman for the Bern health department, Gundekar Giebel: “In the end we got half of them, that is, five vehicles and ten soldiers.”
The federal government apparently wants to show a strict hand
The canton now has to switch to other routes for transporting patients. “For example, on the transfer of patients through air bridges. But we will have to and we will be able to cope with the means we have available, ”explains Giebel.
Advance requests would not be approved, emphasizes the federal government. Obviously, he is trying to demonstrate a strict hand: so that it does not again mean, as after the first wave, that the mission of the army is oversized.
