Do we like them?

Do we like Ignazio Cassis?

Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent record on people and no harmful company, but a Gaza and UNRWA stance that has drawn heavy criticism, and a thin file on the rest.

Ignazio Cassis grew up in a humble family in a village in Ticino, near the Italian border. His father was a farmer and his grandfather an Italian immigrant. He trained as a doctor, earned a doctorate in public health and worked as a cantonal doctor before entering politics late, in his 40s.

He joined the Federal Council in 2017 and took over foreign affairs with no diplomatic experience. He sits on the right wing of his liberal party, and he was Swiss president for 2022. His own line on his job: “My goal is not to be popular but to do good work.” The EU framework talks collapsing in 2021 landed mostly on him.

The stoush is Gaza. In June 2025 he said there was “a violation of international law on the part of both sides”, and the Greens' Léonore Porchet said his comments were “not far from the official propaganda of Israel.” His defenders, including the Radical Party's Philippe Nantermod, said critics were forgetting the hostages. Where you land depends on whether you read it as neutrality or as false balance.

It got worse inside the building. About 250 foreign ministry staff signed a letter, obtained by RTS, asking him for a firmer stance on Israel's operations in Gaza, and a former ambassador said staff no longer identified with the minister's position. Back in 2018 he said UNRWA “has become part of the problem”, and Switzerland later withheld and cut its funding. Funding calls sat with the government and parliament, not him alone.

In February 2026, 25 Swiss lawyers filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court. They allege he is complicit in war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide tied to Israel's conduct in Gaza. That is an allegation by the lawyers, not a finding by any court, and we found no response from him in the report.

Nothing new has turned up on him lately beyond that complaint, and the record on his good works is thin: no big charity story, just a steady public career. He is a lean yes on the evidence we found. The asterisk is for how he handled Gaza, and it's a big one for a household that cares about people.