Exporting Swiss weapons to countries at war is against neutrality and a gift to the EU and NATO!

The revision of the Federal Law on War Material decided by the Swiss Parliament is serious and constitutes a heavy attack on Swiss neutrality. This is a legislative revision aimed at liberalising the re-export of weapons produced in our country and thus allowing them to enter war contexts. Once again, the Parliament of Switzerland has bowed to the diktats not only of the arms manufacturers’ lobby, but above all of the EU and NATO and their policy geared towards a reckless arms race, mainly to the detriment of Russia and emerging nations.

With this revision of the Federal Law on War Material, the export of weapons is authorised practically without restrictions to 25 countries defined as “safe”, even if they are involved in wars, and without a non-re-export clause. In this way, even the minimal guarantees that a neutral country like ours should ensure on the military level are removed, also because these countries – among which there is also the genocidal regime of Israel – are almost all members of NATO (a military alliance that is defensive only in appearance).

Among the “ideological” supporters of this revision there is unfortunately also part of social democracy which, driven by Russophobic fury, advocated in 2022 the export of weapons to the Ukrainian coup regime, thus playing into the hands of the bourgeois and militarist right that is now taking advantage of it. The Socialdemocratic Party of Switzerland even complains publicly today because the new law would not authorise the transfer of weapons to Ukraine anyway: if this had been possible, would we perhaps have seen social democracy allied with the major arms industry?

The Communist Party, on the other hand, remains consistent and continues to commit itself to full neutrality, against the arms race and the re-export of war material to countries at war. In this spirit, we join the referendum and will collect signatures against this legislative revision.