Ignazio Cassis' absence criticized: "A serious mistake"

While Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter flew to Washington on Tuesday with Economy Minister Guy Parmelin, Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis was nowhere to be seen. He appears to be still on vacation, reports the SonntagsZeitung.

His team at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) still managed, at the last minute, to organize a meeting for Karin Keller-Sutter and Guy Parmelin with the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

However, Ignazio Cassis has not responded to repeated calls to contact Marco Rubio sooner. At the end of July, for example, the Ticino Federal Councilor reportedly refused to call the US Secretary of State to understand why Switzerland, which is one of the country's major trading partners, still did not have an agreement with the United States.

He reportedly justified this refusal by saying that Marco Rubio "had nothing to do with foreign trade policy." While this is true in the strictest sense of the word, the US Secretary of State has become one of the most powerful men in the Trump administration, the German-language Sunday newspaper writes.

Another blunder: at the end of July, Ignazio Cassis co-signed a joint declaration with several European countries urging Israel to immediately end its murderous operations in the Gaza Strip. It is suspected that this is also why he refused to call Marco Rubio.

The role of the Ticino FDP in the customs dispute has come under heavy criticism from the SVP. "Ignazio Cassis and his highly paid diplomats bear a great deal of responsibility for the fact that Switzerland is now facing customs duties of 39%. He and his department were solely focused on the European Union (EU) and ignored the United States. This was a serious mistake," says the president of the Agrarian Party, Marcel Dettling.

SVP National Councillor Alfred Heer goes further and demands the resignation of the Foreign Minister. "Ignazio Cassis and the FDFA have failed. They don't know anyone in the United States capable of influencing Donald Trump. Instead of cultivating relations with both American parties, they have preferred to make peace around the world and organize pointless conferences like the one at Bürgenstock," he declared in the newspaper.