President Maurer drops SRF interview on AHV tax deal
On Monday, Swiss President Ueli Maurer walked out of a television interview shortly before filming was set to begin. Although the finance minister appeared in the studio, he took offense at a particular statement, according to SRF host Reto Lipp. According to a spokesperson for Maurer, the agreed-upon terms were not honored.
"The conditions did not meet the agreements," Roland Meier, spokesman for President Maurer's Federal Department of Finance (FDF), told the Keystone-SDA news agency. That is why the President of the Confederation had renounced the interview, he said.
Meier thus confirmed reports in online editions of several Swiss media. These had quoted from tweets by SRF business editor Lipp. However, it was not possible to find out from the FDF what the alleged violation of agreements consisted of.
Maurer was offended by the phrase "old wine in new bottles" in the article, Lipp wrote in one of his tweets on Monday afternoon. Swissmem Vice President Philipp Mosimann has now stepped in at short notice to explain the bill on the federal law on corporate tax reform and AHV financing (Staf). The vote will take place on May 19.
The Staf is a new edition of the Corporate Tax Reform III, which failed in 2017 and was opposed not least because of the lack of social compensation. Now, additional financing for the AHV of CHF 2 billion per year is planned. This is the estimated amount of annual tax losses due to the corporate tax reform.
This is not the first time that Maurer has refused the media: In December 2015, after the election of the Federal Council, he rebuffed the reporter Gion Duri Vincenz from Swiss television SRF when he spontaneously wanted to ask him a few questions. "Nei, kä Luscht" was the short answer of the Zurich Oberlander. (SDA)
