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Kuntz, Joëlle
5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Referendums are emotional dustbins
In the wake of the Swiss vote against the construction of new minarets the daily Le Temps questions the validity of referendums as an instrument of direct democracy: "How is it that the great virtue of Swiss democracy - political rule through frequent plebiscites - has been abused by the base desires of solitary individuals? It became clear in Switzerland last Sunday that intelligent people have lost control and demagogues have won the day. Direct democracy has always been meant as a civic counterbalance to the official power transferred to the country's representatives and the state. But it was never meant to become a dustbin for emotions where the first person with a little money, cunning and a knack for persuasion can rouse the people to place fetters on themselves."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Switzerland, » Europe
Threats to human rights
The daily Le Monde calls attention to the threats to human rights: "In the West the Declaration of Human Rights is the common political and moral point of reference. Elsewhere it is often seen as the tool of cultural and political imperialism. ... Three forces are today laying siege to the principle of fundamental human freedoms: ... Islamism ... which does not respect religious freedom or even any freedom outside the religious community; ... authoritarian states, which put national interests before civil rights, and finally tyrannical or bankrupt rogue states in which there are no rights whatsoever."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Crime and Law, » History, » Weltanschauung, » Global
Paris Book Fair fraught with political tension
"During violent periods, no space is left uninvaded by politics, its priorities, its moral values, its demands. Acts and gestures are over-symbolised and nobody appears able escape the implacable logic of political interpretation", explains Joëlle Kuntz. "The Paris Book Fair is experiencing a miniature, farcical version of what Middle Eastern citizens alas endure every day: there is no question of art, literature or constructive thinking, but only of 'positions', of 'legitimacy' and of 'justifications'. Writers there are not artists, but 'dissidents' or 'collaborators'. ... Boycotting is the political arm of the weak who are crushed by politics and only place their hope in the radicalism of a refusal. They have lost faith in a solution for peace. They have stopped looking for one."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » France, » Switzerland, » Israel
The Danish press is defending freedom of expression
Joelle Kuntz welcomes the initiative of several Danish newspapers which republished on Wednesday, February 13th, the caricatures of Mohamed to protest against the attempted assassination of one of the caricaturists. "We can only approve the Danish reaction. Were the same thing were to have happened in Switzerland, were caricaturists and journalists to have been the targets of such a sinister vendetta, would Swiss society have also stood up to defend the law, silencing its own internal debates on the quality and the appropriateness of works produced or the political identity of their authors. Because in Switzerland, like in Denmark, society, though disunited in its religious faiths, joins forces to maintain the rules that it has made for itself with difficulty over 150 years in order to peacefully deal with controversy. ... How long are we going to have to accept to make allowances in the name of multiculturalism? The Danish have posed this serious question by acting as they have."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Print media, » Religion, » Denmark
The political confinement of French-speaking Switzerland
On November 26th, the Swiss will vote in a referendum on the granting of economic aid to the new Memeber States of the EU. This aid would be spaced out over five years, reaching around 630 million euros. A recent poll revealed a drop of the 'yes' vote in French-speaking Switzerland. "Is this part of Switzerland, reputed to be more open than the Germanic and Italian-speaking parts, beginning to resemble its neighbours?", wonders Joelle Kuntz. "What is happening to French-speaking Switzerland and progressively becoming apparent in the arguments sounded in this referendum campaign, is mental cramping in its political and economic space that is too small. Cut off from France by a principle of non-participation in Europe that was imposed upon it by the German-speakers, and cut of from German-speaking Switzerland by a language that prevents it from firmly expressing itself on the federal scene, French-speaking Switzerland no longer knows where its rightful place is."
» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Switzerland
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