For example, in Mendrisio in December 2019 Cassis announced that UNESCO, the UN agency for cultural heritage, was ready to organize an important conference in Lugano.
The latter, had Covid-19 not arrived, would have marked the return of the city of Ceresio among the congress locations of world interest.
" I come from southern Switzerland and my language is Italian ," Cassis said when introducing the initiative. Describing his relations with his colleagues in the Federal Republic of Bern, he added: " Switzerland is multilingual, but language is not just a sequence of sentences: it also reflects a mentality, a feeling, a culture. It is precisely these values that make our country multicultural, and over the centuries have allowed the Confederation to carve out a capacity for mediation that is highly appreciated internationally ."
These news reports from the past seem to anticipate today's breaking news, which in Lugano sees the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs-FDFA engaged in the first world conference for the reconstruction of Ukraine, still at war with Russia.
By setting aside the protocol commitments, and as the current president of the Confederation, Cassis made his colleagues from the Federal Council visit Ticino and added a stop at the Mendrisio Academy of Architecture to the sequence of annual extra-muros meetings reserved for our team. of government.
The momò population and the numerous media present at the meeting appreciated the informal atmosphere created to inform themselves, directly with the federal councilors, on the current events of the Bernese buildings.
" The government is close to the south of the country ," Cassis commented, " also because I know the specifics of this region where I come from. Even in Bern, the difficulties of recent months require ongoing commitment. The Federal Council has now become accustomed to managing multiple emergencies simultaneously. After the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict began; this fall, we expect inflation and an energy crisis. Fortunately ," reassured the head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), " the Federal Council is strong when it is united. My visit to Ticino, together with the federal councilors, can confirm this ."
