The Federal Council received Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Bern on Tuesday. “In his welcoming speech, President Ignazio Cassis acknowledged the close ties between Switzerland and Italy and the intensive exchange, which reinforces the Italianità already present in Switzerland’s DNA,” writes the federal government in a press release. In addition to bilateral relations, the official talks focused on European policy, the security situation on the continent and multilateral issues.
The Italian President and Ignazio Cassis then addressed the media in Bern. There were bizarre scenes. “The media are asked to only ask questions in Italian or German,” says the press brochure sent out. Only: The translation from German to Italian failed completely. The Federal President, Ignazio Cassis, quickly took over and translated a German-speaking journalist’s question to Sergio Mattarella himself.
