MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2022) Switzerland's Federal Council said on Wednesday that holding a referendum on the controversial purchase of F-35A fighters before the US sales offer expires on March 31, 2023 is impossible.
A leftist alliance lodged a petition with the alpine nation's top executive calling for the $6.2 billion deal on 36 jets to be scrapped. The government accepted the initiative for review after it cleared the threshold of 100,000 signatures this week.
But the government argued that the "schedule requested by the authors to hold the referendum before the offer expires in March 2023 is impossible to meet."
This means that no referendum will take place before the contract is signed. The Stop-F-35 campaign was outraged by what it called was an attempt to avoid a vote.
"It is an insult to more than 100,000 signatories... Considering the numerous scandals and irregularities surrounding the fighter jet deal, it is no wonder that the people are extremely skeptical about F-35," Marionna Schlatter, a Swiss lawmaker from the Green party, said.
Switzerland prides itself on its neutrality and direct democracy in which the Swiss decide on how the country is run at the ballot box. But the government argued that any delay in replacing the fleet of 55 aging jets would have serious consequences for national security.
