Not So Fast - Switzerland Will Have Another Referendum on the F-35

ΣΧΟΛΙΟ ΙΣΤΟΛΟΓΙΟΥ : Οι Ελβετοί τελικά συγκέντρωσαν 100.000 υπογραφές για να κάνουνε δημοψήφισμα για την προμήθεια των F-35 από την SAF. Η πρόταση της LM για 36 μαχητικά F-35 προς 6.1 δις $ εκπνέει τον Μάρτιο του 23. Μένουν 9 μήνες για τη διεξαγωγή του δημοψηφίσματος...

 It’s taken less than 9 months for a coalition of Left-wing political groups including The Group for a Switzerland without an Army (GSoA) to fulfill the first part of a pledge to get the country to reverse course on its acquisition of 36 F-35As. Now they say they have gathered the required 100,000 signatures to trigger a new referendum on buying Lockheed Martin’s LMT -0.6% 5th generation fighter.

As I wrote last fall, GSoA and others opposing the fighter purchase vowed to make the “luxury jet crash at the ballot box”. The alliance, including Switzerland’s left-wing Swiss Green Party and Social Democratic Party, has tapped into significant public opposition to what it says is an overly expensive, overtly strike-capable, fiscally unsustainable “luxury toy for some army officers.”

The 100,000-plus signatures the coalition claims to have collected will have to be handed to Swiss federal authorities and checked before a date for a popular vote can be set. That such a vote will possibly take place as the war in Ukraine grinds on and as Europe views Russia with renewed anxiety is testament to the independent character of Switzerland and its oft-narrow view of realpolitik. 

Timing is important. The $6.1 billion contract with Lockheed Martin was provisionally signed last year and Swiss authorities had planned to await the outcome of the “Stop The F-35” initiative before formally agreeing to the deal. However, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government signaled its intention to officially sign the contract before it expires in March 2023.

That leaves a further nine months from now for the Stop The F-35 organizers and Swiss authorities to stage the referendum vote before contract expiration. The anti-F-35 coalition says that’s doable if the Swiss parliament and government act without intentional delay. 

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