Swiss Centre Party leader says report on proposed federal budget cuts 'one-sided'

The president of the Centre Party, Gerhard Pfister, is critical of discussions launched by the Swiss government on an expert report aimed at making savings in the state budget. He also regrets that the experts have neglected measures that would have generated additional tax revenues. In an interview with the newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, Pfister said that he was not comfortable with the approach taken by the Federal Council (executive body), which organised round tables at the beginning of the week to sound out the views of the parties and social partners on the proposed savings measures. He said "the mere fact of being present gave the impression of agreeing with this report". + Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox He believes that the government's aim was to "give an image of unity behind proposals that would be objective and that could not be called into question". However, the experts' report contains “fundamentally political measures”, he added. + Expert ...