The aerial aerobatic team – the Swiss Patrol – is to be scrapped.
No one wants to spend the CHF 300m over the next ten years to keep it.
The team uses aging F-5 fighter jets, which are too expensive to maintain.
The federal council and parliament agree the money would be better spent on defence and efforts to launch an initiative to save the team has fallen apart.
Campaigners managed to collect just over 8,000 signatures – nowhere near enough – and polling experts say there’s very little chance they would get enough if no major party backs the plan.
Even if they did, many believe the subsequent vote would be lost.
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