According to Barbara Hoheneder, the Belgian moderate parties' promise not to form a coalition with the right-wing extremist Vlaams Belang party won't be enough to combat right-wing extremism in the long term. "The 'cordon sanitaire' is still intact, but with each election victory, the united front against the extreme right is becoming shakier. This is also because the policy of ostracism adopted towards Vlaams Belang makes it easy for the party to portray itself as the genuine opposition. Among young voters in particular, it's now fashionable to vote for Vlaams Belang… Government policy has failed to halt this trend among this portion of the population, in part because the government is afraid to take political measures which come too close to Vlaam Belang's demands. The 'cordon sanitaire' policy based on ethical and moral arguments won't be enough to stem Vlaam Belang's rising popularity." (09/10/2006)

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"Belgium is breathing a sigh of relief", notes Beatrice Delvaux, chief editor of the Brussels daily. "Yes, the Vlaams Blok-Belang has been greatly increasing its electoral scores by comparison to the 2000 local elections. Yes, it is the biggest party in some Flemish localities. But no, it will not reach power. Listen up! Its progression is not a fatality! Belgium, on the verge of the extreme, did not take that dreaded plunge into the sickening, considered by the special correspondents of the foreign media as the one and only stake of this election. ... The real result of this election, essential for the democratic future not only of Flanders, but of Belgium, is evident: the Vlaams Blok-Belang, lost its bet and remains marginalised. The safety rope is holding out. ... The VB continues to weigh on the political agenda of the country, but will not exercise any influence on it." (09/10/2006)

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The editorialist Maurice Ulrich notes that Vlaams Belang has again progressed with the latest municipal elections in Belgium. "This result demonstrates the gravity of the political crisis that is striking Europe today. Belgium is not an isolated case, far from it. .. The European map of the populist right-wing, whatever their minor differences, places them above 10% in Norway, Denmark, Austria, Holland and Northern Italy. Above 20% in Switzerland. In most cases it is mixed up with the far-right. Eastern Europe is no exception. ... It is the absence of perspectives, of real alternatives to the politics in practice, the impression that left and right are alike, that make it easy for demagogues, feed the far-right, populism and hatred in France as in Belgium, as in Europe." (09/10/2006)

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"The development and growing influence of far-right parties across Europe can of course be explained by local reasons, but are part of a general context that can be found all over the continent", advances the daily in its editorial. "The phenomenon is concerning. Beneath this label are at once converted ultra neo-Nazis and populist xenophobes of all sorts. The big democratic parties are confronted with a real challenge that will not simply resolve the problem by creating 'safety ropes', as is the case in Belgium. It is urgent and indispensable that major parties analyse the fundamental reasons for this phenomenon and that they work to limit its effects in the ballot boxes." (09/10/2006)

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"What appears to be a bad Belgian joke reflects a very real phenomenon in this swelling Europe: stupidity and ignorance are being imposed as the new 'politically correct', comments the daily. "Switzerland is not missing out. Yet, in Belgium, the whole balance of the nation is being threatened by this tendency to withdraw into itself. The other, the one responsible for all ills, is also the immediate neighbour: 'The Walloon, the French-speaker, the lazy, mighty unemployed'. Shamelessly proclaimed in Flanders with a hatred rejected by the Flemish intelligentsia. Not enough to stymie a centrifugal movement, breaking up the country a little more every day." (09/10/2006)

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In his acceptance speech for the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, German sociologist and journalist Wolf Lepenies stressed the importance of focusing on Europe's ties with Islam rather than the differences. "Those who oppose Turkey's accession to the European Union have serious arguments: human rights violations, the lack of protection for minorities, the dangers of demographic imbalance and of European institutions not being able to cope. It is not the danger of losing its Christian soul that Europe must fear if Turkey becomes a member state. Europe never had a pure soul; this is one of its strengths. Nor can Islam claim to be 'pure'. Islam was not just a religious culture; it was also an aesthetic and secular culture, and above all it was not a monolithic culture but a fractured one. And for a long time and in many places in the world, it had close ties with Christian values and the Jewish world. To say this openly is a scandal and a blow to Islamic fundamentalists." (09/10/2006)

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In an interview conducted by Jean-Luc Allouche, the Algerian writer Mohamed Kacimi, who has been living in France for 25 years, regrets the lack of debate in the Arab world. "The entire history of Islam and of the Arab world is a history of the brushing aside, if not the condemning to death, of intellectuals. Ever since the decapitation of the inventor of prose, Ibn Al Muqaffa, in the 8th century, via the martyr of Hallaj in the 9th century, up until the assassinations of Farag Foda, Gibran and Samir Kassir. Any intellectual who does not speak in the name of the Prince or, even better, of God is suspect. Anyone who speaks to the community of neither dreams nor fantasies, but of truths, is ipso facto labelled 'miscreant' and 'traitor'. This intellectual misery can be measured by recalling that the funeral of Naguib Mahfouz only mustered 200 people, while the sermon of any obscure imam draws thousands of people." (07/10/2006)

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Lubos Palata expresses his concern about the escalating conflict between Russia and Georgia: "Russia is behaving like a racist state, and the West is doing nothing about it. Russian police officers are going from school to school compiling lists of children with Georgian-sounding names. In this way they are obtaining information about parents who, if their papers turn out not to be in order, could be deported from Russia. It's even worse at the street markets. Police officers are going round tearing up the trading licences of stall-owners with Georgian backgrounds. Russia has declared war on Georgia after Tbilisi dared to arrest and question Russian military officers… Around one million Georgians living and working in Russia are now regarded as enemies of the state, and President Putin is leading this hunt. In his view, Georgia has dared to attack Russia because the West is on its side. However, if Georgia really had the support of the West, Putin and his Russia couldn't do what they're doing now. But the West is silent – and we are too." (09/10/2006)

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Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány won a clear victory in the parliamentary vote of confidence on Friday. Prior to the vote, he apologised for not revealing the extent of the country's economic problems before the elections last April. But despite the vote of confidence there was another mass protest in Budapest on the weekend, with renewed demands for his resignation. Istvan Tanacs comments: "The vote of confidence and the prime minister's belated apology are tantamount to an admission by the government that the lying scandal was part of the reason why the governing parties were defeated in the local elections of October 1. This means voters are not just angry about the government's austerity measures but also about moral issues. The positive outcome of the vote of confidence means the government can now concentrate on the reforms. But before it can do this, the mass protests will have to die down to the point where only right-wing extremists - who are a liability to the opposition - are demonstrating in front of parliament." (09/10/2006)

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On October 7, two large demonstrations took place in Warsaw: one in favour and one against the current government. The demonstration against the government was organised by the Civic Platform, the main opposition party. Its main speaker was Civic Platform leader Donald Tusk. Editor in chief Pawel Lisicki comments: "Although there were more people at the Civic Platform demonstration, the party must be disappointed. They wanted the demonstration to be a repeat of the Budapest protests. It was supposed to make it clear that most of Polish society opposes the government, and that tens of thousands are willing to defend allegedly endangered democratic values. It's not clear whether it was ten or sixteen thousand that took part in the demonstration, but even if it was sixteen thousand, that's still not much for a demonstration against a repressive government." (09/10/2006)

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Aigars Kalvitis, the incumbent prime minister, won the Latvian parliamentary elections held on the weekend. He announced he would continue governing with the same two coalition partners. For Aivars Ozolins, this may well not be what voters wanted: "Even before the official results were made known, Kalvitis announced the electorate had voted for his coalition. However, the people voted for at least four coalition models, even if you don't count the Kremlin-controlled 'Harmony Centre' party or the communists. I doubt whether voters want a government that declares victory even before the votes have been counted… The controlling parties have no real agenda for solving the country's acute economic problems." (09/10/2006)

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"The statement on the latest prison crisis - expected as early as today - from the Home Office will show how far the government has fallen short ", comments the daily. "The almost 80,000 places in prisons in England and Wales are full. ... There is a vicious circle here that this government has not tried nearly hard enough to break. It has responded to the public's fear of crime by restricting the sentencing discretion of Judges. At the same time, it has consistently failed to fund the increase in prison places that are needed to keep pace with harsher sentencing. Overcrowding means that prisoners are often moved around at short notice, which makes rehabilitation, in the form of education and training programmes, nigh impossible, even if funding were adequate, which it is not. We would like to believe that when the Home Office sets out its response to the latest prison crisis, it will propose solutions that go beyond the simple expedient of more prison places..." (09/10/2006)

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The Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead on October 7 in Moscow. She was well known for being an outspoken critic of the Russian government and for her reports on the situation in Chechnya. The Danish daily's editor in chief, Toger Seidenfaden, comments: "Anna Politkovskaya was fighting a losing battle in a Russia where independent journalism and critical commentary on issues awkward for the government are becoming increasingly restricted. Putin's Russia is proof that a country and its people can be brought to its knees by brute force. ... Politkovskaya did not have much influence in Russia. She worked for a small newspaper. But she was an important voice in the rest of the world. With great courage and clarity, she gave us an insight into the reality of the situation there. Her murder is a tragedy and symbolic of Putin's Russia and its twisted combination of fear, absolute power and unabashed brutality." (08/10/2006)

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The daily laments the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya on Saturday October 7th. " 'People sometimes pay with their lives for saying out loud what they think,' Anna Politkovskaya told a conference on press freedom last December. ... She confronted repression and deceit in all its forms, well aware of the risk she was running... . Her sympathies as a writer and campaigner always lay with the civilian victims of a conflict they had done nothing to start and could do nothing to resolve. ... She defied enemies in the Russian government, military and underworld, though friends, aware of the risk she faced, encouraged her to leave Moscow. Instead she stood her ground. Such courage cost Ms Politkovskaya her life. The test for President Putin is to be equally courageous in finding her killers." (09/10/2006)

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"Major debt is claiming more and more victims" warns the editorialist Helena Garrido, who is concerned about the financial situation of the Portuguese. "Since the interest rates started to go down at the end of the 1990s provoking consumerist euphoria, famillies and businesses have been alerted to the risks of severe indebtedness. The portuguese have never been acustomed to decision making in the management of their personal fincances, quite simply because nothing could be decided. During the dictatorship and the fifteen years that followed the revolution, a large part of the economy was reglemented. ... Individual freedom in matters of financial choice, suddenly applied in a country marked by exacerbated paternalism, inevitably creates problems. ... Today there is still time to act. It will suffice to seriously invest in the financial education of the Portuguese, through information campains and interventions in schools." (09/10/2006)

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Dirk Knipphals takes stock of the Frankfurt Book Fair, which ended on Sunday. "At least it was in keeping with the literary tradition that appears to have established itself over the past ten years at the book fair. And the results of these ten years are now reinforcing the fair's internal structure. A tendency towards consolidation is making itself felt in many areas. As far as authors are concerned, this was not a fair for those launching their first books but for those who were on to their third or fourth book. Many of the authors – Dietmar Dath, Katharina Hacker, Gregor Hens, Christoph Peters, Tobias Hülswitt, Feridun Zaimoglu, Thomas Hettche – made their debut in the mid-1990s and are now well-established names, so that reviewers have to examine their books closely to check for quality. Simply calling a book 'new' is no longer an automatic seal of quality." (09/10/2006)

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The daily reacts in an editorial to the football encounter in Barcelona on Sunday, October 8th, with the confrontation of Catalonia and the Basque Country. "Presented by the respective independent television channels as a match 'between nations', this encounter allowed the display of all the symbolism of independent movements, from flags to 'national' anthems... .The political importance of this match is incontrovertible. ... It embodies the continuous policy of concession practised by Zapatero [the head of the Spanish government] who requests 'time' before it is possible to observe its fruit. The problem is that even the most optimistic and the most confident people recognise every day that the process is irreversible. Separatism is winning ground both on the football field and on the street." (09/10/2006)

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