The Swiss Ministry of Defense wanted to buy the F-35 of the United States, and civil society organizations immediately launched a protest by more than 100,000 signatures, they believed that Switzerland was a neutral country and should not take the initiative to bow to the United States.
The protracted Russian-Ukrainian conflict will lead to so-called "serious consequences", and the most terrible situation is that the whole of Europe will be dragged into war. Since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Poland and the Baltic countries, which are small European countries mixed with the United States, often use the crisis as an excuse to increase NATO's military presence, and Sweden and Finland, the two neutral countries, are not neutral, scrambling to join NATO.
And Switzerland, as a country with a 200-year history of neutrality, is a rare buffer of disputes in the world, they escaped World War I and World War II, why are they still afraid of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict?
Switzerland is located in the center of Europe, known as the Swiss Confederation, at the beginning of the founding of the country, they were surrounded by the French Empire in the west, the Roman Empire in the south, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the east, but the rise and fall of these empires has never affected the neutral existence of Switzerland, but they need to have such a Switzerland, to remind themselves that the world still needs peace.
Thousands of years later, history has changed dramatically, the French and Roman Empires have long since disappeared, and their descendants, France and Italy, although they are the main countries of the European Union, can encounter anything that depends on the face of the Americans. Austria, a small European country, has no shadow of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire at all.
On the contrary, Switzerland, from a country without a unified language, has developed into the richest country in the world, which everyone aspires to, thanks to its neutral status.
Switzerland is poorly resourced, but strategically located, and before the Swiss Confederation, people there mainly relied on stunning scenery to attract people from the surrounding areas to settle down, and made a living by "opening caravanserais".
Later, the Swiss Confederation also tried to take the line of radical imperialist expansion, and also made a name for itself in European soil with its extremely strong "combat effectiveness", of course, that was the era of cold weapons. The myth of the Swiss Confederation was disillusioned on the road to expansion, and in 1515, in a battle with François in France, half of the Swiss side died under artillery.
Surrounded by great powers and lagging behind in technology, Switzerland lost to reality, and from that defeat, the Swiss were afraid and began to seek a living in the cracks. In the next 300 years, there were many wars in Europe, large and small, but Switzerland was basically not involved.
At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution broke the quiet life of Switzerland, they became the "vassal state" of France during napoleon's conquest, after the defeat of France in Waterloo, Switzerland officially issued a statement in 1815, establishing the status of a permanent neutral country, promising not to participate in the war, not to send mercenaries, and the existing armed forces only to ensure their own security.
During World War I and World War II, imperialism competed for interests, Switzerland as a neutral country, and no interest dispute with either side, so it sought to survive, even in the face of Nazi Germany, small Switzerland also escaped the doom of Poland being blitzkrieg, and quickly achieved prosperity after the war.
In the past few decades, Switzerland has not joined the European Union and has looked at NATO coldly, because this neutrality has made the Swiss people not have to worry about disputes in other countries, nor will they be angry because they are used as tools by other countries. So why has Switzerland changed now, gradually turning to the American side?
Because the laws of the world have also changed dramatically in the past few decades, Nazi Germany during World War II, no matter how fierce, can only conquer a country through actual war. But now, the hegemony of the United States in the economy can easily threaten the fundamentals of a country, Switzerland has been established as a financial country, and it is difficult to resist the giant beast of the United States.
Therefore, Switzerland has maintained its neutral status for 200 years, and finally it will give up, and this initiative to buy F-35 fighter jets is a proper surrender. As for the serious consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in fact, at this stage no one knows, Switzerland just has no choice but to side with the United States.