Romania's President Traian Băsescu can stay in office but there are only losers in this domestic conflict, writes the liberal-conservative daily Die Presse: "Prime Minister Victor Ponta, raised to office by the resignation of his predecessor, wanted to take control of the Bucharest presidential palace. He has failed. Yesterday's unequivocal ruling by the Constitutional Court reaffirms his defeat, something he must be finding hard to swallow. But Ponta must give in unless he wants to gamble away the last remnants of his credibility, both with his EU colleagues and his political rivals at home. On the other hand Traian Băsescu with his rather ragged reputation doesn't make a good winner either. He would be well advised not to turn his return to office into a triumphal procession. He has proven on several occasions that he's none too fussy when it comes to sticking to the rules of democracy. In vain we seek a true winner in this ignominious debate. And the biggest loser is still Romania's democracy."  (22/08/2012)

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Who's saying what » Power struggle in Romania

The ruling of the Constitutional Court has left many Romanians with a great sense of bitterness, the left-liberal daily Gândul comments: "Băsescu must now quickly return to office because the political situation needs to be stabilised, at least formally. That's not to say that the frustration of the 7.4 million Romanians who voted against him will evaporate. On the contrary, these people will feel they've been robbed, betrayed and mocked. They know what they voted for. They know how many they are, and they see that their ballots have been turned into toilet paper. ... Now a man is returning to Cotroceni Palace [the residence of the Romanian president] who - in addition to all the things that were already known about him - has proven to be cowardly and dishonourable and whose lies have degenerated into a national fraud." (22/08/2012)

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Who's saying what » Power struggle in Romania

The decision of the Romanian Constitutional Court encourages hopes that the rule of law holds sway in Romania after all, writes the conservative daily Magyar Nemzet: "Although the Constitutional Court has ruled that Băsescu can take up his office once more the Romanian head of state remains unpopular as the majority of the voters can't forgive him for the drastic austerity measures. On the other hand his political opponents are doing everything they can to spoil their chances in the parliamentary elections this autumn: they are making one mistake after the next. ... In recent months Victor Ponta's left-liberal government has basically committed political hara-kiri. The unpopular Băsescu and the opposition democrats who support him have done everything possible to prevent the left-wing liberals from gaining terrain with their anti-democratic tactics. The decision of the Constitutional Court now gives hope that the rule of law does indeed apply in Romania." (22/08/2012)

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Who's saying what » Power struggle in Romania

Extraditing Julian Assange to the US would be exposing him to serious danger, so Ecuador's decision to grant the Wikileaks founder asylum in its London embassy is well founded, the left-liberal daily The Guardian writes: "Why, Assange's critics charge, would he be more likely to be extradited to the US from Sweden than from Britain, Washington's patsy, notorious for its one-sided extradition arrangements. There are specific risks in Sweden - for example, its fast-track 'temporary surrender' extradition agreement it has with the US. But the real point is that Assange is in danger of extradition in both countries - which is why Ecuador was right to offer him protection. ... If the Swedish government pledged to block the extradition of Assange to the US for any WikiLeaks-related offence (which it has the power to do) - and Britain agreed not to sanction extradition to a third country once Swedish proceedings are over - then justice could be served. But with loyalty to the US on the line, Assange shouldn't expect to leave the embassy any time soon." (22/08/2012)

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Who's saying what » Wikileaks on trial

US President Barack Obama has threatened Damascus with military intervention if it resorts to the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict. In the eyes of the liberal-conservative daily Diário de Notícias Obama was right to send a clear message: "It may not look good when a Nobel Peace Prize winner threatens a country with war. But Obama knows that in the case of Syria a red line must be drawn. The use of chemical or biological weapons would be unacceptable for a US president. Even the mobilisation of such weapons to create a threatening scenario would cross that boundary. ... Three months ahead of the US presidential election Obama has little interest in involving his country in an ill-defined conflict. ... And an abrupt end to the Assad regime would destabilise the Middle East. However a US president is expected to make clear statements. And Obama, who gave the order for the withdrawal from Iraq but is still fighting in Afghanistan, has an advantage over his Republican rival Mitt Romney in this respect." (22/08/2012)

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Who's saying what » Civil war raging in Syria

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who ruled the country for 22 years, died in Brussels on Monday aged 57. The left-liberal daily Le Temps looks back on Zenawi's anti-democratic leadership but also says he deserves praise for certain achievements: "Certainly, the Western industrial nations systematically closed their eyes to the autocratic excesses of Ethiopia's strong man, ... who gagged the opposition, had journalists put behind bars and quashed the rebellion in the Ogaden region [in the east of the country]. To that extent the African statesman, who was one of the great hopes of his generation, was a bitter disappointment. Nevertheless the late prime minister also deserved the accolades of Western leaders. ... Not only was he a loyal ally, particularly to Washington. When his country lay in ruins after the horrific regime of dictator Mengistu, he stimulated economic growth and made it an island of stability in Eastern Africa." (22/08/2012)

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Two Belgian nuclear power plants may have to be closed down due to safety problems even though the move could cause energy shortages. All of a sudden Belgium is waking up from the days when no one gave a thought to the problems posed by nuclear power, the left-liberal daily De Morgen writes cynically: "Suddenly everyone's waking up from their nuclear intoxication. But now it's not the horror scenarios of a nuclear disaster that have got us in a sweat, it's the very real prospect of an energy shortage this winter. Well what do you make of that, perhaps it wasn't such a clever idea to make our energy supply so dependent on a single and what's more outdated energy source. After the Belgian government went back on the plan first announced at the end of the last century to phase out nuclear energy more than ten years were lost. Because it's far simpler to do nothing and let power flow from nuclear plants like water from the tap." (22/08/2012)

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The way the states of the West are handling Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the hacker network Anonymous and the Occupy protest movement is a symptom that the West is losing the battle against its critics, writes Jakob Augstein in his column on news portal Spiegel Online: "There is a growing divide between what is the law and what is perceived as just. The law is clear: it's forbidden to publish national security documents. It's forbidden to break into the databases of credit card companies. It's forbidden to occupy public spaces. And because all this is forbidden the whole procedure regarding Assange, Anonymous and Occupy is simple: accuse them, bring charges against them and sentence them. And by the way, it really is forbidden to sing punk prayers in a Russian Orthodox church. The law doesn't always protect justice: we stand by and watch the Americans ignore not just their own laws but also the laws of others in their wars. We watch as our society falls prey to the greed of the criminal players in the financial centres. ... And we condone it when those who rebel against this are persecuted by the security services and criminalised." (20/08/2012)

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The rating agency Moody's said in a report on Tuesday that the crisis countries of the Eurozone have made progress with their structural reforms. But Italy's politicians are wasting valuable time under the transitional technocratic government with their pointless banter, the liberal daily La Stampa criticises: "The rating agency's assessment is no reason to start celebrating. ... Because all optimism quickly fades at the thought of the upcoming election campaign and its protagonists. We are talking about a political class that nine months ago agreed not to govern and not to oppose. It has left it up to the technocrats to drag the cart out of the mud. So when democracy was suspended it was done with the parties' blessing. We will make good use of this time, they pledged. They would use it to reform electoral law, for example. But nine months haven't been enough to produce a consensus. ... What we see now is the pitiful scenario of a marketplace where all that counts is who teams up with whom and what colour his tie is. ... There is not a single concept for the future of the country, for an institutional basis on which Italy can build."  (22/08/2012)

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Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

According to recent Eurostat figures, on average almost a quarter of European youths aged between 15 and 24 are unemployed. In Greece and Spain that figure rises to over 50 percent. Business-friendly politicians are willing to accept such mass youth unemployment, the left-leaning weekly newspaper WOZ writes: "There most certainly are alternatives to the prospect of long-term poverty for millions of youths: an across-the-board reduction of working hours instead of a raise in the retirement age, sensible employment programmes and support for community work financed by fair taxation of all income classes, instead of the dismantling of the welfare state. ... Capital - and its politicians - reject such proposals offhand. For them the growing reserve army of young labourers is also an effective means of introducing wage and pension dumping across the generations. Many older citizens and most unions still fail to grasp this fact. The protesting youths with their often very imaginative initiatives are way ahead of them. And their resistance also highlights what creative potential society is losing out on." (16/08/2012)

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Who's saying what » Ways out of the debt crisis

Apart from Bulgaria, France is the sole European country that has declined to produce unconventional forms of natural gas. The government should hold its course and continue to say no to shale gas production, urges political advisor Nicolas Thierry in the left-lieral daily Libération: "Multinational companies are attempting to manipulate a debate whose results involve long-term obligations. If you reduce the discussion to the technical aspects of shale gas production, you're implicitly admitting that this energy source is acceptable. But isn't the core of the issue much more the place of fossil fuels in tomorrow's economy and environmental policy? This debate is entirely political, in the truest sense of the word: if you accept that this sort of fossil energy is produced in France, it can only be because issues like climate change and sustainability don't play any role whatsoever in political thinking. The positions of our politicians on this issue show just what sort of society they aspire to in the future." (22/08/2012)

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Wildfires on the Aegean island of Chios have destroyed more than 12,000 hectares of forest and cultivated land. In addition, more than 30 percent of the Mastix trees, the sap of which is an important economic factor for the island, have been burnt down. The wildfires may be caused by arson instigated by investors interested in building wind parks, the magazine Intellectum fears: "It is widely believed on the island that the devastating forest fires are directly connected to this year's decision by the supreme administrative court to allow the construction of wind parks in areas that are to be reafforested. According to this ruling, projects are incontestable in terms of constitutional law when their execution has been assessed as crucial and serving social, national or economic interests. ... We want to see forests and Mastix plantations on Chios in the coming years, not wind parks. If the wind parks do come they should be called 'wind parks of fire'. And the name should be emblazoned on a huge sign." (21/08/2012)

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All available articles from » Viktor Tsilonis

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Cyril I, and the President of the Polish Episcopal Conference, Józef Michalik, signed a declaration of reconciliation on Friday in a bid to improve relations between the two churches. But this joint appearance has caused confusion among Poland's traditionally anti-Russian Right, the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza writes: "The national-conservative PiS party and its right-wing journalists have fallen into a trap. ... How can they reject a declaration in which Orthodox and Catholic church leaders jointly complain that today's world promotes abortion, euthanasia and same-sex partnerships? How can they continue to claim that there can never be a 'reconciliation with Putin's barbarism', when the Orthodox Russians want to join forces with the Catholic Poles? Because both are against a civilisation that rejects traditional values and banishes religious symbols from public life. It's not surprising that the Polish Right is now confused and divided." (22/08/2012)

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The hacker community Anonymous on Tuesday manipulated the website of the Russian court which sentenced the punk band Pussy Riot. For some time the site showed a music video featuring Azis, a whimsical pop-folk singer and drag queen from Bulgaria. The daily Novinar tries to make sense of things: "Anonymous used Azis as the antithesis of the masculine to show that Russia's president is behaving in an underhanded, unmanly way. ... If Anonymous had wanted to voice its protest with a song of revolt it would have chosen the Sex Pistols. After all, they're punks like Pussy Riot and, like the Russian band, were arrested because they protested against the monarchy and in favour of the working class. ... When the flamboyant Bulgarian performer lavishly enjoyed ice cream, strawberries and hot machos on a Russian TV show some time ago, the people in the audience killed themselves laughing. If you, Comrade Putin, don't care what the people think of you, then just take a moment to savour the hackers' message." (22/08/2012)

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All available articles from » Aglika Georgieva