MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Typical Trump: announcement he will attend Davos forum triggers controversy

The Swiss government said it was “delighted” that President Trump was coming to the mountain Davos, but centre-left politicians have made their displeasure clear.

The announcement that US President Trump is to visit Switzerland later this month to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, has prompted mixed reactions. While a spokesman for the Swiss government said it was “delighted” that President Trump was coming to the mountain resort of Davos, centre-left politicians have made their displeasure clear.

 Government spokesman André Simonazzi tweeted that Swiss President Alain Berset had expressed a desire to meet Trump at the WEF meeting in eastern Switzerland.
Details of the visit to Davos, the first ever of a US president, would be worked out between the two sides in the coming days, he said.

Meanwhile, the youth wing of the Social-Democratic Party SP is calling on the government to prevent the visit and has begun collecting signatures to a letter to the Federal Council, Blick reported.

It said the Social Democrats had also launched a Facebook campaign to oppose the visit.

It was calling on “all those who see Trump’s policies as posing a danger to progress, security and the environment” to sign the online petition.

The Graubünden branch of the SP said in a statement that the US president was free to visit, but this did not mean he was welcome.

A left-wing protest group, Campax, has also launched a petition against the visit and is planning to stage a demonstration, Blick said.

In Davos itself locals are rejoicing at the prospect of Trump’s visit, the paper said, with shops and restaurants hoping to serve the US president and his entourage.