Swiss government minister breaks silence over Trump remarks controversy
Last week Rösti answered a question from a student about his preference for the outcome of the US election, which takes place on Tuesday, November 5.
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss government minister breaks silence over Trump remarks controversy
Transport Minister Albert Rösti explained his position on Sunday evening, after being called out for expressing support for Donald Trump. He admitted that a federal cabinet minister has no business speaking out on foreign elections.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Français
fr
Demi-mea culpa d’Albert Rösti pour ses propos sur Trump
Original
“I was answering a question from a student as Albert Rösti, but I am well aware that a government minister should not comment on, or discuss, elections abroad,” said Rösti on Swiss public television RTS. He was reacting to the controversy created by his remarks.
A week ago, in front of an audience of Basel students, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party politician said he was “personally more in favour of Donald Trump”. He said Trump was “the only president who hasn’t led America to war for four years”. He added, however, that he had “trouble” with the former president’s “personality”, according to comments reported by Tamedia newspapers.
This stance on an election in another country was criticised in Swiss political circles.
External Content
Translated from French with DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
US says Switzerland can order fewer fighter jets amid cost hike
This content was published on
According to the American authorities, a possible reduction in the number of F-35 fighter jets ordered by Switzerland is possible to cushion the unexpected cost increase.
On wolves, ‘priority should be given to scare shots’, says expert
This content was published on
Wolf expert Jean-Marc Landry believes that Swiss Environment Minister Albert Rösti's decision to rely entirely on shooting is short-sighted.
A thousand demonstrators in Swiss capital demand climate justice
This content was published on
The climate crisis is exacerbating injustice around the world, and the current economic system benefits from colonial and patriarchal oppression, said one of the speakers.
Russian drones in Poland have ‘no impact’ on Switzerland: defence minister
This content was published on
According to Swiss Defence Minister Martin Pfister, the intrusion of Russian drones into Polish airspace "shows how unstable the situation in Europe is."
E-cars account for 10.5% of new registrations in the canton of Zug
This content was published on
Nowhere else in Switzerland are electric cars as popular as in Zug. Currently, 10.5 per cent of cars registered in the canton of Zug are purely electric, as new data from the online platform Energie Reporter and Energie Schweiz and Geoimpact show.
ETH climate researcher honoured with the German Environmental Award
This content was published on
Swiss climate researcher Sonia Isabelle Seneviratne from ETH Zurich receives the German Environmental Award 2025. She shares the prize, endowed with 500,000 euros, with the management duo of the steel galvanising company Zinq.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.