The parliamentary elections in Greece will decide whether the country remains in the Eurozone or not, writes the blog portal Voxpublica: "Whatever the election results, the next government in Athens will inherit a frightening economic and social situation that immediately poses the question of just how long it can remain in office. A rejection of the agreement with the IMF and the EU such as the front-runner in the opinion polls [the left alliance Syriza] is planning would mean a quicker bankruptcy and an unavoidable exit from the Eurozone. However if the Greeks do manage to form a government that adheres to the international agreements, it will have to pass additional austerity measures. ... By June 30, the government must present its international creditors with details of how it plans ... to sink public spending. ... Doubts over whether Greece is able to do that - regardless of who wins the elections - are already deepening the sovereign debt crisis that spans Southern Europe." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Elections, » Greece, » Europe
All available articles from » Daniel Oanta
Who's saying what » Greece puts the Eurozone to the test

In the run-up to the elections in Greece on Sunday the liberal daily Upsala Nya Tidning expresses concern about the state of the country and fears that it will slide into anarchy whatever the outcome of the vote: "The Greeks' trust in their politicians continues to diminish, and with good reason. They have no hope for the future any more. What is needed is a fresh start with a new generation that is not bogged down by the old mentality. But how can such a revolution come about? Simple having a new party in power will hardly be enough to achieve this. … If they vote against the euro, the new currency would be devalued by 50 percent, which would wreak havoc in the country. If they vote for the euro and the tough cutbacks and large structural changes, chaos will also ensue." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Elections, » Greece
All available articles from » Gunvor Hildén
Who's saying what » Greece puts the Eurozone to the test

According to media reports the Greeks have been withdrawing between 100 and 500 million euros a day from their bank accounts.The left-liberal daily To Vima warns people not to succumb to panic: "Driven by the uncertainty and fear resulting from the current political instability, thousands of our fellow citizens are trying to protect themselves without realising that they are only making the problem worse and intensifying the crisis. If social peace and the economy are destroyed, if violence and lawlessness gain the upper hand, any deposits abroad will be worth little. We must not wreck our own country. It still has opportunities and energy. The bank deposits are not in danger. But they will be if panic becomes widespread. By thinking logically we can jointly prevent this from happening." (13/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Greece
Who's saying what » Greece puts the Eurozone to the test

The opposition in Spain is demanding that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy explain the reasons behind the bank bailout. A spokesman for the prime minister announced on Tuesday that Rajoy would present an account of the situation in parliament in July. The prime minister doesn't seem to have grasped the gravity of the situation, the left-liberal daily El Periódico de Catalunya criticises: "Not until July will Rajoy appear before Congress to explain why he has applied for a bailout for the banks that are turning families left ruined by their mortgages out of their homes. This conduct is distancing us from Ireland and its civilised debate about the cutbacks and bringing us closer to the broken society that a failed state like Greece is having to bear. The [ruling] People's Party appears not to have an adequate understanding of what is happening here, of how the crisis is destroying the middle class, which will lead to a radicalisation of politics and society. The brash attitude towards Brussels, the bailout that no one is will to name as such, Rajoy's absence from Congress and the veto against an inquiry committee into the Bankia affair are pushing us closer and closer to Greece." (13/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Spain, » Greece, » Ireland
All available articles from » Albert Sáez

For the second round of France's parliamentary elections on Sunday, the conservative UMP has refrained from saying it would join a "republican front" and support a Socialist candidate to prevent a victory of the far right Front National (FN). The lines that divide the UMP and the Front National ideologically are becoming increasingly indistinct, the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné fears: "In refusing to endorse a republican front, the UMP is only further blurring the lines that separate it from the FN, which had already been severely compromised by Sarkozy. Above and beyond little electoral arrangements between the two rounds, certain candidates will stop at nothing to save their seat or settle an old score. One may well worry about the consequences of these ideological affinities with a Front National that the UMP continues to render more acceptable in trying to put the Socialist Party on a par with the Left Front [whose support the Socialists may need to achieve a parliamentary majority]. Especially now that the centre has disintegrated." (13/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » France
All available articles from » Erik Emptaz

Czech nuclear power experts met with German nuclear opponents in the Bavarian town of Passau on Monday to discuss the planned construction of reactors 3 and 4 of the Temelín nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. In his blog for the news portal idnes.cz, Ladislav Velebný doubts that the Germans and Czechs will reach an agreement on nuclear power: "The Czech Republic is convinced that nuclear power is safe. And that conviction is shared by a large majority of the population. The Bavarian and German conviction, by contrast, is that nuclear energy presents a terrible risk. So we have two opposing points of view here. ... It makes little sense to present technical arguments. ... But right from the start it must be said loud and clear that only the Czechs may decide what happens with Temelín. That's not anti-German, anti-Austrian or anti-European, it's simply a matter of national sovereignty." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Energy, » EU neighbourhood policy, » Germany, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Ladislav Velebný

If the euro crisis continues to escalate the existing bailout mechanisms will cease to have an effect, warns columnist Wolfgang Münchau on news portal Spiegel Online: "The problem is not just the size of the ESM, but its structure. Here, everyone who hasn't received a bailout is liable for everyone who has. … A combination of banking, fiscal and political union would solve the problem. However it is not the noble principle of a political union that would make an impact here but rather the concrete debt conversion. Press releases won't solve the crisis. If the euro summit at the end of the month agrees on a ten-year schedule for a political union, the impact on the markets will soon evaporate because Italy will still be caught in a debt trap. … An exit and radical debt restructuring would put an abrupt end to the internal Italian crisis, but this would be just the beginning of our crisis. A large part of Europe's banking sector would be on the brink of collapse. … Whatever happens, these are the last months of this phase of the crisis. Either a burden-sharing political union is created. Then the conflict would be transferred to the domestic policy level. Or the euro collapses and the crisis we face takes on entirely different dimensions." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Wolfgang Münchau

The interest rate on Italian government bonds rose again considerably on Wednesday. Because Italy is coming under increasing financial pressure its Prime Minister Mario Monti needs to campaign for the trust of his EU partners, the liberal-conservative business paper Il Sole 24 Ore demands: "Hopefully our prime minister will be as victorious during his European tour as our legendary cyclist Fausto Coppi once was. … Germany yesterday once again reiterated its no to euro bonds through its finance minister Schäuble and also resisted Monti's idea of factoring investments out of the deficit. If the euro bonds remain just a dream and the path to a new European Central Bank with more room for manoeuvre remains blocked, other solutions must be sought, including a European bank guarantee and direct access for banks to the bailout fund for indebted countries." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Germany, » Italy, » Europe
All available articles from » Guido Gentili
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

US rating agency Moody's has lowered Spain's credit rating by three notches on Wednesday evening, leaving it barely above junk status. It also warned that a further downgrade may be imminent. The liberal-conservative Neue Zürcher Zeitung is not surprised at the move: "That Spain's financing difficulties have increased once more is not simply a result of the general uncertainty but above all the manner in which the bailout is taking place. The EU billions were supposed to free Spain of its enormous bank problem. However at present the EU has no instrument at its disposal for a direct recapitalisation of the banks. This has meant that the ties between the state and the banks remain intact. In fact Spain has actually become even more closely entwined with its banking sector. The financial aid is flowing to the weak institutions, while the state guarantees the loans." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Banks, » Spain
All available articles from » Nathalie Gratwohl
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

As a means of stimulating the economies of crisis-stricken countries, economist Nouriel Roubini on Wednesday proposed to the German government that every German household should receive a gift voucher worth 1,000 euros for a holiday in one of these countries. But as long as Germany continues to capitalise on the crisis this good idea won't be put into practice, the business paper Diário Económico suspects: "It is an original approach to curbing the crisis in Europe: Merkel's government should give each German family a travel voucher on condition that they spend it on a holiday in one of the crisis countries. The 'doomsday prophet' is of the opinion that Germany's 'austerity mania' must end; the German government should lower taxes and increase salaries. Europe needs growth, Roubini believes, and he's right. … On the same day Germany auctioned of six-year inflation-indexed bonds at a negative interest rate of 0.31 percent. While Germany continues to profit from the crisis the travel checks will no doubt remain in Merkel's drawer." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Tourism, » Economy, » Germany, » Europe
Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

The spokesman of the radical Islamic movement Sharia4Belgium, Fouad Belkacem, was arrested in Antwerp on Monday on suspicion of inciting violence. A court ruled on Wednesday that he must serve a previous six-month prison sentence even though minor offences usually result in suspended sentences in Belgium. Justice Minister Annemie Turtelboom also wants to withdraw Bekacem's Belgian citizenship. Fear is a poor advisor, warns the liberal daily De Standaard: "This overreaction to a relatively minor threat raises the question of whether our constitutional state is in danger. … However so far Belkacem's angry tirades have not been life-threatening for our constitutional state. We don't need new laws to combat his intolerance and his disruptive behaviour. It's enough to apply the ones that already exist. For some time now the country has failed to execute the punishments of an important group of convicts. They are de facto going unpunished. That's the real scandal." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Belgium
All available articles from » Bart Sturtewagen

All of the public benches have been removed in a village in southern France as part of a beautification project. Officially the measure is meant to cut costs, but the real reason seems to be because the benches are mostly used by residents of Northern African origin, writes the liberal business paper Les Echos. Two factors support this explanation, the paper writes: "Firstly, it is more credible than the idea that removing the benches will save anything more than a pittance, and secondly it is perfectly in line with the results of the first round of the parliamentary elections. Here and in of the surrounding towns the Front National has come close to and even surpassed the 30 percent mark. This explanation even has the major advantage of getting people to think seriously about where our society is heading. If the only way to solve the difficulties posed by the coexistence of cultural groups is to physically remove the most modest amenities, we are definitely in a bad way." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Integration, » Elections, » France
All available articles from » Favilla

British Prime Minister David Cameron must give evidence this Thursday before the parliament's media ethics inquiry into the 'News of the World' phone-hacking scandal. The liberal Financial Times fears his popularity ratings will plunge even further as a result: "Had the police been doing their job - and the corruption of law enforcers matters far more than the criminal conduct of journalists - the phone-hacking scandal would have ended much sooner in criminal proceedings, rather than in the Leveson fandango, which the judge has allowed to spiral out of control. To any rational person, this affair appears minuscule compared with the storms battering Britain and the world. But it would be wrong to underrate the damage it has already inflicted on the prime minister. Revelations about his lapses of judgement weaken his authority to lead Britain, and this is no time for debilitating distractions." (13/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Media policy, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Max Hastings

The Polish police arrested more than 180 Polish and Russian fans who ran riot before and after the Euro 2012 match (1-1) pitting Poland against Russia. The conservative news portal Wprost Online has harsh words for the Polish fans: "It is lamentable that the insults [directed at the Russians] were sung louder than the songs meant to encourage the players wearing the eagle crest. That means football wasn't the most important thing that evening. ... 'Shame, Embarrassment, Disgrace and Stupidity': This is the headline printed on the front page of a tabloid six years ago - the day after Poland lost to Ecuador. One day after the match between Poland and Russia the papers should print this headline again. Because these are the only words to describe the behaviour of the bandits whose goal wasn't to cheer on Poland but to put it to shame." (14/06/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Sport, » Poland, » Russia
All available articles from » Marcin Pieńkowski
Who's saying what » Kick-off in Eastern Europe