Federal Councillor should not express preference for Trump, according to Rösti
Published: Sunday, Nov 3rd 2024, 22:00
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On Sunday evening, Federal Councillor Albert Rösti halfway distanced himself from his statement that he would "rather lean towards" Donald Trump as US president. Speaking on RTS television in French-speaking Switzerland, he explained that a Federal Councillor should not comment on elections abroad. His personal Albert Rösti had run away with him.
"I answered a student's question rather than Albert Rösti, but I am aware that a Federal Councillor should not comment on elections abroad," he told the Tagesschau program on French-speaking Swiss television.
Rösti spoke out in favor of the ex-president and Republican presidential candidate last Monday during an exchange with students in Basel. He replied to one pupil that he was "leaning towards" Trump in the US elections on November 5.
He expects him to bring peace to Ukraine. After all, Trump is the only president who has not led the USA into war during his four years in office. However, he also conceded that the candidate's personality was problematic.
Rösti's response was met with a great deal of criticism afterwards. Political scientist Michael Hermann, for example, described it as "problematic from a diplomatic point of view".
President Viola Amherd, on the other hand, stuck to custom on the issue and explained that it was the voters in the USA who had to decide. "We do not interfere and work together with the democratically elected heads of state," she told members of the Foreign Press Association in Bern.
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