The Swiss Confederation reported a budget surplus of CHF 600 million, yet the proposed budget in Switzerland for 2018 includes “savings” of CHF 100 million under the heading “development aid”. The National Council will be discussing this from tomorrow, but today Caritas Switzerland which disseminated these figures released a statement to denounce the “dishonesty” of “bourgeois politicians” who want a policy of austerity without “daring to say openly where and how” they intend to save. Especially because, given the budget surplus, “this measure of savings at the expense of the poorest of the poor is even more unjustifiable”. Caritas reports that the Federal Council, in its economic plan, has already “reduced the budget for international cooperation by 150 million”. Now the new cuts proposed by the Finance Commission relate to an area covered by the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs with “very concrete duties”, such as financial support to humanitarian aid, contributions to the International Committee of the Red Cross (which would suffer a cut of CHF 20 million), or to the UN or to funding for long-term development projects. “Switzerland refuses to help many women, men and children in the poorest countries of the world”, Caritas wrote, to “further consolidate its budget surplus. This is ruthless and absolutely contrary to solidarity”.