The news that Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado has handed over her medal to US President Donald Trump has caused disbelief and strong reactions in the Norwegian media, as well as in professional circles.
Trump, who has long expressed a desire to receive this award, accepted the medal from the Venezuelan opposition leader during a meeting at the White House.
Machado presented the medal to Trump, calling it “a recognition of his unique commitment to our freedom.” She has been excluded from Venezuela’s transition of power since Jan. 3, when U.S. forces ousted Nicolas Maduro, though his regime remained in power.
The American president, who claims to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize because, according to him, during his second term he has contributed to the resolution of several conflicts, had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the decisions of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, reports MEDIA.
"This is completely unacceptable," Janne Haaland Matlary, a professor at the University of Oslo and former politician, told public broadcaster NRK. "This action is a complete lack of respect for the award," she said, calling it "meaningless" and "pathetic."
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasized last week, through an official statement, that the Nobel Prize cannot be divided or transferred.
The Nobel Peace Prize is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the world for efforts in the field of diplomacy and peace.
"This is extremely shameful and damaging to one of the most recognized and important awards in the world," he wrote in a post on Facebook, Raymond Johansen, former mayor of Oslo from the ruling Labor Party.
"The awarding of the prize is now so politicized and potentially dangerous that it could easily legitimize developments that contradict the very idea of peace," he wrote.
It is one of five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896. /Telegraph/
