Saggi di Dodis 2 (2020/1)

In September 1975, the Swiss Minister of foreign affairs, Federal Councillor Pierre Graber, decides to recall his Ambassador in Madrid «for consultations» as a protest against the summary executions carried out by the dying Franco regime. He sets a precedent both commended – in the name of Switzerland’s humanitarian values – and denounced – in the name of the neutrality, back then still defined as abstention. As the first «official manifestation» of disagreement in international affairs, the recall for consultations is one of the instruments that States have in their diplomatic arsenal to express a divergence. Although its use in 1975 questions Swiss foreign policy practice, it does not establish the call for consultations as a fruitful tool of Swiss diplomacy.