The daily considers that the "television debate between Zapatero and Rajoy that was broadcast on March 3rd was the most decisive point in the election campaign. ... The on-going battle between the two major parties, far from favouring the emergence of smaller parties, actually reinforces bipartisan politics. Thus we may well find ourselves facing the paradox that the implacable confrontation millions of Spaniards watched yesterday will facilitate things for the victor. This is simply because if the number of seats won by the PSOE and the PP were to surpass the number obtained by the main parties in the previous elections of 2004, the weakening of minor parties would give the winner room for manoeuvre that the socialist government has not enjoyed during the last four years." (04/03/2008)

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"Spain's general election campaign, now reaching its climax, has been a dispiriting spectacle", comments the daily. "Against the background of an economy weakened by the end of cheap credit and a sharp property market correction, the contenders seem to be trying to bribe or frighten Spanish voters. That is odd. Spain in the past three decades has become a confident and prosperous democracy. … If all you did was listen to Spanish politicians, you probably would not guess that. Spain's public life has become very polarised. The rightwing opposition Partido Popular [PP], in power for eight years after a 14-year Socialist reign, remains unreconciled to losing the past election ... Instead of acting as a parliamentary opposition, the PP has tried to impugn constitutionally major initiatives of the Socialists, in an effort to paralyse government." (03/03/2008)

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Pedro Magalhães notes the absence of any consensus in Spanish politics. "Consensus is not a virtue in itself. But the absence of any basis for consensus between the two major Spanish parties on themes as crucial as defence, foreign policy, the struggle against terrorism, the power and competence of autonomous communities or the justice system, has to be disturbing. It is also true that nothing is certain and that political divides, even the deepest, can be reduced as well as reinforced by elections. Polls, however, are indicating no such tendency. If the PSOE wins, it will win by a very narrow margin, and thus the victory will not suffice to make the current leaders legitimate, while things won't be made any easier for the moderate right-wingers. A victory for the PP would be final proof for conservatives that confrontation and polarisation pay off." (03/03/2008)

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Even though Spain appears to be fixated on the contest between Conservatives and Socialists, smaller and, in some cases, regional parties also have a role to play in helping the larger ones achieve a majority. Peter Gaupp writes about a new party, the Unión Progreso y Democracia (UPD), of which MEP Rosa Díez and philosophy professor Fernando Savater are both members: "The party defines itself as 'national, constitutional, secular and progressive' and wants to revive the sprit of a new beginning which prevailed in the transitional period between Franco's dictatorship and democracy. The UPD rejects separatism and nationalism as voracious, undemocratic and non-conducive to coalition building. ... It remains unclear from which party the UPD will win more voters: both PSOE and the PP are studiously ignoring the troublemaker. But the group has managed to put up candidates all over Spain in the short time since it was founded. With its scarce resources, it is staging an original election campaign with spontaneous, open-air discussion forums." (04/03/2008)

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Gary Shteyngart, an American writer with Russian origins, has just published a satirical novel about Russia, Absurdistan. Interviewed buy Antonio Lozano, he takes a pessimistic view of his country. "Today Russia is nothing but a gigantic natural gas and oil supplier. It is a dead country. It has a very low birth rate for one thing. And yet in terms of culture, it has the best prose of the19th century, without which contemporary literature cannot be understood. ... When Absurdistan was published in Russia, I was called a traitor to the nation, on the Untied States' pay-roll, but at the same time, several critics said, 'We live in Absurdistan!' ... [Satire] has always been the best political weapon, since Jonathan Swift, and then Gogol, my reference. And it continues to be, with Vladimir Sorokin in Russia and George Saunders and others in the United States." (04/03/2008)

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Not even Russia's new president Dmitry Medvedev knows how much room for manoeuvre he will have politically. "Putin has created an oligarchic capitalism in which a close circle of his confidants, most of them secret service members, controls a large part of the country's finances. The state has fallen prey to special interests. ... The Kremlin has used the enormous revenues which have flown into the public treasury over the past few years to secure its own power and for personal enrichment, rather than modernising the ailing state. Its stability therefore largely depends on rising prices for raw materials. Only thanks to an increased flow of money can this combination of feudalism and secret service oligarchy be maintained. How long the good times will continue depends not least on the recession in the US and other external factors. Without functioning institutions, the corrupt system won't be equipped for leaner times." (04/03/2008)

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All available articles from » Sonja Margolina

On Wednesday, March 5th UK MPs will vote on a Tory amendment to the Bill to ratify the Lisbon treaty. If the amendment is passed, a referendum might be held. David Clark, fromer government adviser, comments: "The real mistake was to have offered a referendum at all, for the constitution was also a minimalist document and should have been dealt with as such. ... What could be wrong with giving the people a say? Surely the government has only changed its mind [Since Tony Blair promised a referendum] because it thinks it will lose? In fact, there is nothing democratic about allowing one or two members of a club of 27 to block change wanted by the rest. What opponents of Lisbon are asking for is not democracy at all, but the right of a single-country veto to frustrate the will of the majority. It is understandable that they should do so because they know that any properly democratic system would have approved the old constitution, never mind Lisbon." (04/03/2008)

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All available articles from » David Clark

Bronisław Geremek, the MEP and former Polish foreign minister, has once again refused to submit a so-called 'lustration declaration', which is aimed at throwing light on whether he cooperated with the former communist secret service. A year ago he risked losing his mandate because of this. Talking to Kamila Wronowska, Andrzej Zoll, a law professor in Cracow and former president of the constitutional court, criticises Geremek's stance. "The last time Geremek rejected lustration his attitude was understandable. He said back then that he would not make any declaration before the constitutional court reached a decision. But now that the constitutional court has made its decision, every MEP is obliged to comply. Naturally, it's up to Geremek whether he obeys the law or not. But then he must accept the consequences. ... The voters should draw their own conclusions from what has happened." (04/03/2008)

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After Austria's Social Democrats (SPÖ) agreed to the setting up of an enquiry committee to investigate claims of corruption against their coalition partner, the conservative ÖVP, the coalition is on the verge of collapse. However Martina Salomon sees no way out of the current alliance for the SPÖ, considering a coalition with the right-wing populist FPÖ just as unlikely as an alliance with the Greens: "The Austrian politicians' self-destructive conduct has reached the point where new elections would be a game of Russian roulette for the chancellor. Thanks to the rapidly-growing 'party' of non-voters and 'white voters' (who intentionally make invalid votes), it's hard to predict the election result. Despite its freshly-oiled voting machinery, the SPÖ is in danger of ending up in second place. And because the big parties are losing ground, alternatives to the grand coalition haven't much of a chance of success." (04/03/2008)

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Bulgaria has not yet declared its position on Kosovo's independence. While Bulgarian politicians describe this stance as cautious, Edvin Sugarev finds it weak: "By not adopting a clear stance and shunning responsibility, Bulgaria is just trying to keep the Kremlin happy and avoid annoying Brussels. However, such conduct is neither loyal to the country's allies nor its values. No one would expel Greece from NATO or Romania from the EU because they oppose Kosovo's independence, because everyone knows that they reject it for egoistic but nonetheless understandable reasons. But the other line of reasoning is that which takes values into account. According to this reasoning, because of its 'ethnic cleansings' Serbia has lost the moral right to regard Kosovo as its territory. ... A third line of reasoning doesn't really exist, only that of the coward who wants to avoid ending up between two front lines." (04/03/2008)

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Germany's Volkswagen group has acquired the majority stake in Swedish truckmaker Scania. The major shareholders of the Swedish Wallenberg family have sold their shares to the German automaker. The trade union at Scania is putting its trust in Volkswagen's promise to maintain the Swedish plant in Södertälje in operation. Göran Greider fears "the trade union is being somewhat naïve here" and writes: "When Volvo and Scania were planning a merger eight years ago, the European Commission put an end to their plans saying that the resulting group would have too large a share of the market. This basically means that in the long term the EU wants to prevent the creation of large companies in small countries while permitting companies that are just as huge and have an equally large share of the market in big countries like Germany. National capital - in this case that of the Wallenbergs - is no longer national and no longer interested in production. Quarterly profits now count more than production." (04/03/2008)

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All available articles from » Göran Greider

Erik Izraelewicz notes that "the heights reached [Monday, March 3rd] by the euro, gold, and petrol, as well as those surpassed by wheat, milk and steel, were hardly imaginable just a few weeks ago. European currency over 1.5 dollars, an ounce of yellow metal at almost 1,000 dollars, the price of a petrol barrel now a three-figure number ... These peaks now feature in our landscape. This series of records is actually symptomatic of our world's difficulties, the expression of current imbalances in the world economy, profound imbalances that have only gotten worse in recent years. Imbalances between a rich world that consumes credit and a poor world that saves money. ... The therapies proposed on a global level are, for the time being, extremely poor. The symptoms may well last and even deteriorate, while records continue to be broken." (04/03/2008)

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After Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arablia, Iran has just announced that it too intends to boycott the Turin Book Fair next May and the Paris Book Fair this March 14-19. Both events have invited Israeli writers as guests of honour. For Pierluigi Battista, "The threat of a boycott is once again casting a menacing and paradoxically triumphant shadow. Cultural authorities may well have reacted against the censors who want to deprive Israeli writers the right to speak in both salons, but rumours that the biggest Israeli writers are going to pull out have not been completely denied. The different calls for a boycott will have obtained their goal if the book fairs are abandoned by Abraham Yehoshua, David Grossman or Amos Oz, Israel's most representative writers." (04/03/2008)

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Media expert Peter György portrays the Polish artist Artur Zmijewski, whose work is currently the subject of an exhibition in Budapest. Among other works his '80064' video, in which an Auschwitz survivor has his prisoner number tattoo redone, is also on show: "All Zmijewski's provocations, his carefully thought-out and complicated works, target Polish society, which sees itself as the victim of a terrible war. This is because defensiveness and repression can't be cured with humanistic pedagogy. ... Films like 'Fateless' or 'The Pianist' are perfect examples of a failed humanistic pedagogy that promises salvation and catharsis even when there's no reason for it. The incredibly complicated and risky aesthetics Zmijewski employs - which create new connections and new horizons in his works - force us to acknowledge our faults. It doesn't soothe, but rather causes confusion and drives us crazy." (04/03/2008)

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All available articles from » Péter György

A UNESCO delegation recently spent five days in Prague assessing the extent to which plans to build several skyscrapers could endanger the Czech capital's World Heritage status. The result is that UNESCO sees no immediate threat to Prague's status at present, but plans to keep a close eye on the project. David Jares comments: "It's sad that UNESCO even toyed with the idea of striking Prague from the list of World Heritage sites. But what's almost beyond comprehension is that the Conservative Party, which has ruled city hall for almost 20 years now, has allowed things to go this far. What could be more conservative than preserving the heritage of their ancestors ?" Nonetheless, Jareš finds UNESCO's criteria equally questionable: "It has prohibited the installation of plastic windows in a suburb while allowing roofs that will alter the character of the panorama forever in the valuable Kleinseite district." (04/03/2008)

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All available articles from » David Jareš