OSLO | The Norwegian elected official who nominated Donald Trump for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize last week admitted on Tuesday that the American president appeared “boorish and arrogant”, while saying that he saw him as a “deserving” candidate.
• Read also: Trump nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize
A member of the anti-immigration populist right, Christian Tybring-Gjedde made waves on September 10 by announcing that he was nominating Donald Trump for the prestigious award.
Reason: the “unique and historic” normalization agreement that the occupant of the White House sponsored between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he explained to AFP.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is required to accept all proposals submitted by the hundreds each year: thousands of people around the world (parliamentarians and ministers from all countries, former laureates, some university professors …) are entitled to advance an application.
The initiative of the Norwegian deputy, himself very controversial in his country, has caused much ink to flow, a few lengths from the US presidential election of November 3. Candidate for a second term, Donald Trump has split a long series of tweets expressing his enthusiasm and gratitude.
Tuesday, in the columns of the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, Mr. Tybring-Gjedde returned to the reasons that led him to propose him for the Nobel, after having already done so for the first time in 2018.
“There is little doubt that Trump often appears boorish and arrogant,” he wrote in a column.
“My appointment is based on the results obtained for world peace, reconciliation and the withdrawal of military troops (…) It is perhaps precisely the non-diplomatic attitude of Donald Trump that makes his conversations not stay. not just words, ”he explained.
According to him, the 74-year-old billionaire fulfills the criteria set out by Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) to win the prize better than former laureates.
“It doesn’t matter in this context that we don’t like Trump’s personality. Donald Trump is (…) a deserving recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, ”he concluded.
As usual, the Nobel Institute, responsible for collecting the nominations, refused to comment on it.
“It is important to tell the world that being selected does not mean anything about how the Norwegian Nobel committee perceives a candidate,” however, its director Olav Njølstad told AFP.
“Since so many people have the opportunity to select someone, it is evident that the spectrum of selected individuals and organizations is very wide,” he added.
Another parliamentarian, Sweden’s Magnus Jacobsson, also nominated Donald Trump for the Nobel in 2021, this time for his efforts to bring Serbia and Kosovo closer together.
In the meantime, the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on October 9.