The presidents of the National Council and of the Council of States, along with Ignazio Cassis, President of the Swiss Confederation, are to attend the swearing-in of 36 recruits of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, a ceremony held on 6 May each year in memory of the soldiers who fell during the Sack of Rome in 1527. The programme also includes a visit to the Swiss Institute in Rome. Ms Kälin, Mr Hefti and Mr Cassis will also visit the site of the new Swiss embassy to the Holy See.
In addition to the ceremony in the Vatican, on Thursday 5 May Ms Kälin and Mr Hefti will attend a working meeting in Rome with Maria Elisabetta Alberti Casellati, the president of the Italian senate. Their talks will focus on current bilateral and international issues.
Ms Kälin and Mr Hefti will be accompanied by the head of the delegation for relations with the Italian parliament (Del-I), National Council member Greta Gysin (Greens, TI), who will have the opportunity during this official visit to meet her counterpart in the Italian parliament, Cristian Romaniello (MISTO/Lombardy group), who is a member of the Chamber of Deputies.
The last parliamentary meeting at presidential level was in 2019, when the then president of the National Council, Marina Carobbio Guscetti (SP, TI), was received by her Italian counterpart Roberto Fico.
Collaboration and contacts between the parliaments contribute to the institutional dialogue between Switzerland and Italy and provide an important channel for bilateral and multilateral exchange. The two countries enjoy close economic, political, social and cultural relations. Italy is Switzerland's third most important trading partner, and Italian nationals in Switzerland form the largest foreign community in the country. This is an important social factor in relations between the two countries, and one which boosts the importance of the Italian language in Switzerland.