Swiss Finance Minister Maurer to step down at end of year

ZURICH, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Finance Minister Ueli Maurer, a fiscal hawk who recognised the necessity to activate the cash faucets to assist Switzerland get by means of the coronavirus pandemic, will step down on the finish of this 12 months, he stated on Friday.

Maurer, former chief and nonetheless member of the right-wing Swiss Folks’s Occasion (SVP), has been finance minister since 2016. He had additionally served as defence minister and held the revolving Swiss presidency in 2013.

His successor is ready to be selected Dec. 7, when parliament elects cupboard members, he stated. The SVP as largest occasion in parliament would haven’t any downside sustaining its two of the seven cupboard seats, he added.

Maurer, 71, stated no single occasion led to his choice to step down, however famous that after 4 many years in politics, it was time for a change.

“Up to now one-and-a-half years, I felt I’ve a variety of vitality to do one thing else,” he advised a information convention in Bern.

Maurer, an old-school politician who rose from his farming roots in Zurich to achieve the very best ranks of Swiss authorities, stated he didn’t intend to play an energetic function in politics as soon as he leaves.

However he took a ultimate shot on the information convention on Friday on the “spending spree” gripping Swiss politics that he complained was resulting in structural deficits.

He additionally revealed he pays no consideration to the information media aside from a every day look on the teletext information web page, and advised employees to let him know of any huge tales that had dominated the information for no less than every week, which he stated was seldom the case.

He stated he knew the cleansing ladies within the authorities constructing the place he labored higher than anybody else, and steered individuals learn extra books relatively than simply social media.

He advised reporters he had simply learn Tolstoy’s Warfare and Peace, including: “That brings extra to me than your merchandise.”

Reporting by Michael Shields, Enhancing by Miranda Murray and Jane Merriman

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.