The Swiss connection
Mitt Romney was frequently bashed by the Democrats for his Swiss bank account. But the Republican is said to have other links to Switzerland.
His firm Bain Capital would not have developed in the way it did without a Geneva financier, according to Hebdo magazine (article in French).
Barack Obama has alleged links to Switzerland via his family tree. In 2010 a Swiss archivist claimed to have traced Obama’s family tree to a villager from western Switzerland, who came from the picturesque German-speaking village near the capital Bern, Ried bei Kerzers.
Claiming Swiss roots was all the rage this year. In May Swiss media reported that US congresswoman Michele Bachmann had become a Swiss citizen thanks to her husband, who is of Swiss parentage from canton Thurgau.
But it did not last long. Critics in the US accused the prominent Tea Party member of policy inconsistency, so under pressure she withdrew her claim to citizenship less than two months later.
Obama’s roots were traced to this house near Bern (Photo Keystone)
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