The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the Venezuelan opposition Maria Corina Machado has not gone down too well in the White House. There was a clamor in the US Administration demanding the award for Donald Trump for being able to end “eight wars in eight months.” A cry also championed by the relatives of the Israeli hostages and supported even by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has not considered all of the Republican president’s diplomatic efforts to be sufficiently meritorious. “President Trump will continue signing peace agreements, resolving wars and saving lives. He has a humanitarian heartand there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” a White House spokesperson said.
The Trump Administration official went one step further in his criticism of the decision, according to the agency Reutersand stated that “The Nobel Committee has shown that it puts politics before peace”.
An aerial view shows the inscription “Nobel 4 Trump” created by agricultural artist Peter Winner in a field, near Kibbutz Maoz Haim.
Reuters
The group of five experts from the Norwegian Nobel Institute that decides the award met for the last time on Monday, two days before Trump announced the signing of the agreement between Israel and Hamas for the release of the hostages and the implementation of a ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave.
Even if they were aware of the progress of the negotiations, it is quite unlikely that the Republican president’s diplomatic milestone would have precipitated a decision that normally brews for months. The surveys only gave him a 4% chance.
The secretary of the committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, who participates in the deliberations although without the right to vote, had already hinted in advance that Trump would have a difficult time: “This award is awarded primarily for work completed in 2024 and previous years, not because of the last weeks or months,” he confirmed to the Norwegian public broadcaster. NRK.
Those responsible for granting the award to María Corina Machado have avoided entering into controversy. “This committee sits in a room filled with portraits of all the laureates, a room that is filled with courage and integrity. We base our decision only on the work and will of Alfred Nobel“, justified the president, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, at a press conference in Oslo after announcing the ruling.
Trump, who has described himself as a global “peacemaker”, had claimed in recent months his role in conflict resolution, even going so far as to assure that not receiving the Nobel Prize would be “an insult” to the United States.
The jury has recognized Machado, antithesis of Nicolás Maduro, for his “tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela and for his fight to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”