The Nobel Peace Prize committee has responded to pressure for Trump to win the award.
It comes after Venezuelan political activist María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
It added that the Nobel Peace prize for 2025 goes to a “woman who keeps the flame of democracy going, amidst a growing darkness”.
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The committee awarded Machado the prize for being one of the most “extraordinary examples” of courage in Latin America in recent times.
Machado has been a key unifying figure, it added.
“This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy, our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree.
“At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground.”
Now, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the Nobel Peace Committee’s chairman, has responded to pressure about Donald Trump being awarded the prize.
Trump had been nominated by the likes of Cambodia, Pakistan and Israel, and publicly spoke of his desire to win the award.
Fydnes was asked whether pressure from Trump and some in the international community had impacted the decision of the committee while choosing the winner, the Mirror reports.
He replied: “In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize I think this committee has seen any type of campaign, media attention and we receive thousands of letters every year, from people wanting to say what to them means peace.
“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with courage and integrity.”
“We base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel,” he concluded.