Swiss army prepares for euro unrest

Switzerland is evidently planning for the worst, staging military drills last month to prepare for anarchy unleashed by the euro crisis. EUObserver reports: “It’s not excluded that the consequences of the financial crisis in Switzerland can lead to protests and violence,” a spokesperson of the Swiss defence ministry told CNBC on Monday. “The army must ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images
PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images
PASCAL PAVANI/AFP/Getty Images

Switzerland is evidently planning for the worst, staging military drills last month to prepare for anarchy unleashed by the euro crisis. EUObserver reports:

Switzerland is evidently planning for the worst, staging military drills last month to prepare for anarchy unleashed by the euro crisis. EUObserver reports:

“It’s not excluded that the consequences of the financial crisis in Switzerland can lead to protests and violence,” a spokesperson of the Swiss defence ministry told CNBC on Monday. “The army must be ready when the police in such cases requests for subsidiary help.”

Some 2,000 officers took part in the "Stabilo Due" military exercise in eight towns around the country, based on a risk map detailing the threat of internal unrest between warring factions and the possibility of refugees from Greece, Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, according to Swiss media reports.

Swiss defence minister Uli Maurer recently told Schweizer Soldat magazine that there may be an escalation of violence in Europe. "I can’t exclude that in the coming years we may need the army," he said.

Switzerland hasn’t seen combat since the Napoleonic wars so this is a pretty grim scenario.

Joshua Keating is a former associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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