New Swiss finance minister sees difficult decisions ahead (updated)

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08/12/2022 15:32

(Recasts, adds comments, background)
    By John Revill
       ZURICH, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Switzerland's new finance
minister said on Thursday that difficult decisions lie ahead for
the wealthy country as it wrestles with a widening gap in its
public finances.
        Karin Keller-Sutter, from the centre-right Liberals,
will replace Ueli Maurer at the start of next year in a
reshuffle of the seven-member cabinet sparked by the
resignations of two members.
    Maurer, a fiscal hawk from the right-wing Swiss People's
Party (SVP), had announced in September he would retire.
    Keller-Sutter's priorities will be to keep spending under
control after an expected 2022 deficit of 4.1 billion Swiss
francs ($4.38 billion) caused by extraordinary expenditure to
tackle the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
        Extra spending, mainly for a financial safety net it has
set for the power generation sector, brings the financing
deficit to around 4.8 billion francs next year.
  
        "It's clear that decisions need to be made relatively
quickly here," Keller-Sutter told a news conference in Bern.
"Those decisions are not going to be painless, they are going to
be painful."
  
        She said decisions would require give and take from all
ministries and nothing could be solved with a "crowbar".
  
        The reshuffle was also triggered after Energy Minister
Simonetta Sommaruga, a Social Democrat, announced last month she
would resign at the end of the year to help care for her
husband, who is recovering from a stroke.
  
        Albert Roesti, a newcomer to the cabinet from the SVP,
will take charge of the environment and energy ministry.
  
        Under the Swiss model of consensus government, the
cabinet roles are distributed to the different parties according
to their representation in parliament.
  
        President Ignazio Cassis, who kept his job as foreign
minister, said Roesti's past as a lobbyist for the fossil fuel
industry would not be a difficulty.
  
        "Of course, we also talked about past tasks and
competencies of the new members," Cassis said. "But no Federal
Councillor decides for himself alone; it is always a collegial
decision."
  
($1 = 0.9355 Swiss francs)
 (Reporting by John Revill; editing by Michael Shields and
Richard Chang)
 ((Michael.Shields@thomsonreuters.com; +41 41 528 3630; Reuters
Messaging: michael.shields.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))