Where is the Swiss population supposed to find this additional money? It is high time we moved away from pure gift-giving policies and made clear repayment agreements like the Americans do. We must face the truth: every well-intentioned delivery of blankets or tinned food, no matter how well-meant, relieves the Ukrainian state budget and frees up funds for the purchase of weapons. This means we are effectively helping to finance this war. It is absolutely irresponsible towards taxpayers to make massive cuts to services at home that we have worked hard to achieve, whilst billions flow into the development of foreign states at the same time. We are experiencing a painful dismantling at home in order to finance development abroad. The money was earned here and should primarily serve to alleviate the hardship and concerns of our own citizens, rather than giving it away unconditionally.

In any case, I don't want to imagine what will happen should Russia win the war. It won't stop with Ukraine, and the Western democracies, including Switzerland, would do well to finally wake up. I fear we will otherwise pay a much higher price.