The US election campaign has relied solely on mutual accusations so far, the liberal daily La Stampa writes, and hopes that this will change with the Democratic National Convention this week: "The stalemate [in opinion polls between the presidential candidates] is taking its toll on the party programmes. Strategists, opinion researchers and television spots tend towards attacks instead of proposals. ... Obama promises to change the tone in his speech on Thursday, and to announce thoroughgoing economic reforms. ... Romney and his vice-presidential running mate Paul Ryan are also set to reveal details of their plan for fighting unemployment soon. But in anticipation of these initiatives America remains stuck in the uncertainty of a campaign in which the conflicts and tensions have concealed a lack of ideas and the weaknesses of the candidates. Obama has not managed to change Washington as he promised he would in 2008. And Romney is not basing his victory march on a new concept for America, but on dissatisfaction over his rival's failures." (03/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Maurizio Molinari

The expectations placed in Obama when he was elected four years ago were so great that he was doomed to fail from the start, the left-liberal daily The Guardian writes commenting on his performance so far: "Liberals saw in him a genuine radical. Centrists thought he could break the power of the Washington lobby. Climate change campaigners thought America would lead the search for Kyoto's successor, not block it. Everyone prayed Obama would restore America's tarnished global image, so that it could lead by force of argument rather than force of arms. Of course, this Icarus flew so high he was doomed to crash. ... It has been such a bitter, personalised campaign that no candidate has even thought of making a major policy speech. It has all been attack ads, and there is much more to come. This week Obama will have to do better. He must provide people with a real reason, other than fear, to vote him in again." (03/09/2012)

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Unlike his Republican rival Romney, US President Obama is a formidable public speaker. But that won't be enough for him to win voters this time around, the Christian Social daily Trouw contends: "Four years ago he stood for a new beginning, today he can't claim much more than that he didn't do so badly under the circumstances. Even if this is the truth, as a slogan it's simply not enough. Pointing to the Republican blockade in Congress isn't sufficient to work up enthusiasm. ... The decisive question is whether Romney's strategies are more promising than Obama's. What does the Republican candidate want? To lower taxes, to rescind the healthcare reform, to spend more on defence and be more agressive on the international level. It's hard to see how either the US or the rest of the world are going to benefit from that. Obama's task now is to offer a pratical, believable alternative" (03/09/2012)

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Ahead of the Democrats' nominating convention journalist Tom Burns Marañón points out in the conservative business paper Expansíon how much has changed since the Americans jubilantly elected Obama into office in 2008, and says the race between Obama and Romney could prove an exciting one after all: "Contrary to previous predictions I believe that this presidential race that ends on November 6 will be anything but boring. Whether Obama will manage to enflame the masses once more remains to be seen, and it's a sure bet that Romney will pit his businessman's pragmatism against the president's ideals. The best indication of how much things have changed [since the last election] is that a very dedicated Mormon who spends much of his time and money on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a chance of getting into the White House. At the very least this speaks of different values. Critics may consider those values naive, but they are nonetheless values. And they might even be described as good ones." (03/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Tom Burns Marañón

Despite rigid implementation of the austerity programme, according to experts Portugal will exceed the agreed deficit target for 2012 by a large amount. The left-liberal weekly Expresso calls for the country to abandon its austerity policy: "The troika would be happy and benefit if Portugal was doing better. If its formula for recovery was proving effective here it would have proof that the cure - if painful - guarantees success when the patient follows the doctor's instructions to the letter. … With a patient as compliant as Portugal there should be clear signs of recovery by now. But that's not the case. … Neither the government nor the troika are likely to be humble enough to admit that they were completely mistaken both in their diagnosis and their treatment. But we can at least expect them not to continue prescribing the same medicine. We may have become poor and faithless, but we're certainly not complete idiots." (03/09/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Portugal
All available articles from » Miguel Sousa Tavares

Germany's Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger announced on Saturday plans to prevent the purchase of CDs containing data about tax evaders. The liberal Financial Times Deutschland criticises the initiative: "This new row [over the CDs] is pretty pointless because little has changed in recent years in the legal standpoint on the purchase of the tax CDs. The Constitional Court made it clear in 2010 that the German state is allowed to use even information that was originally acquired by illegal means. … What has changed, however, is the political situation. The tax agreement with Switzerland is essentially defunct. … To hand over the best weapon against tax dodgers in these circumstances is, to say the least, a suboptimal approach. No agreement and no tax CDs - this would be the worst possible outcome after all the fuss that has been made for years over the untaxed external assets of Germans." (03/09/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Tax Policy, » Germany, » Switzerland

The national pride displayed by the British both during the Olympic Games and the ongoing Paralympic Games is uncalled-for in view of the country's history, nationalism researcher Eric Taylor Woods writes in the London School of Economics' blog Europp: "Britain is perhaps more deeply entangled with the world than any other country, yet nowhere was this in evidence in the opening ceremonies. It seems that the ongoing controversy over the meaning of Britain's imperial history, as to whether it should be celebrated or mourned, has led many Britons to prefer to willfully forget Britain's engagement with the world altogether. Does Britain's controversial global history mean that it must now reconstruct a hermetic image of itself? I hope not. Without reference to Britain's global history, there is no way to properly understand the contemporary world, much less Britain or its contemporary multicultural demography." (03/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Eric Taylor Woods

Bulgaria and Russia have stepped up negotiations over the South Stream gas pipeline, which is to transport Russian gas across the Black sea via Bulgaria to Italy and Austria. The two countries intend to have the contracts on the project signed by mid-November, Bulgarian government officials announced on Wednesday. The opinion portal Svobodata warns that this could extend Russia's energy monopoly in Bulgaria: "Neftochim, the sole oil refinery in the country, is in Russian hands. We get our oil exclusively from Russia, and a large percentage of petrol stations belong to Lukoil. The fuel rods for Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant also come from Russia. ... The worst thing, however, is that we have kissed goodbye to the Nabucco pipeline project [from Turkey to Austria], which represented the biggest competition to South Stream. In this way we are shamefully undermining Europe's plans for diversifying its energy supplies. This shows that we continue to be Russia's Trojan horse in the EU - or rather Russia's Trojan donkey." (01/09/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Energy, » Economy, » Russia, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Edvin Sugarev

Economist Péter Felcsúti blames the current credit crunch in Hungary on the policies of Viktor Orbán's national-conservative government, contending in the online edition of the left-liberal weekly Magyar Narancs: "Hungarian politics unequivocally adopted a confrontation course in 2010 by among other things saddling the banks with a horrendous dedicated tax. … In response the foreign banks not only withdrew their capital en masse but also dismissed large numbers of employees and closed down local branches. As a consequence the Hungary's lending business has ground to a standstill. … Faced with the confrontational policy of the Orbán government the banks have lost all their confidence in Hungary as an economic location. In the long term this will harm the Hungarian economy's prospects of growth." (03/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Péter Felcsuti

The Estonian parliament ratified the ESM bailout mechanism on August 30. The news portal Delfi sees the decision as proof that Estonia has buckled under the criticism of Keynesian economist Paul Krugman, who had voiced scepticism regarding Estonia's economic recovery: "According to Krugman, investors withdraw their capital from a country when economic uncertainty is on the rise. And economic uncertainty is growing in Estonia, despite - or perhaps because of - the fact that the Estonian government has done exactly what Krugman proposes. The parliament's decision on 30 August constitutes a complete capitulation on the part of President Ilves [who had hitherto advocated an austerity policy]. By contrast the people, who are out on the streets in protest [at the austerity measures] and who support the ESM, are like those in 1940 who believed in the gifts offered by the Soviet Union." (03/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Olev Vaher

According to Lithuania's Department of Statistics, in the first half of 2012 the number of tourists visiting Lithuania rose by 11.8 percent in comparison to the same period last year. Great news for the country, columnist Andrius Užkalnis comments jubilantly in the liberal daily Lietuvos rytas, because "these are just the registered tourists. Who knows how many visitors are coming and staying with friends rather than in hotels? … All the Russians in Palanga and Druskininkai (about 40 percent more Russian tourists this year - dream statistics!), the Poles in Vilnius, the Germans on the Curonian Spit, the Czechs and Italians everywhere, the Belarusians in the supermarkets - this all translates into money, jobs and rising consumption and revenues for the state. … Lithuania is a success story. And its rapidly growing tourism sector is clear proof of this." (03/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Andrius Užkalnis

In an interview with the Swiss daily the Tages-Anzeiger, the head of the Swiss Federal Office for Immigration, Mario Gattiker, said that a growing number of unemployed EU citizens from the crisis-stricken countries of Southern and Eastern Europe are seeking jobs in Switzerland. In view of the economic risks this poses, the liberal daily calls for a blockade: "In the medium term the immigration of unemployed persons who find a job here poses certain risks. ... In a recession the poorly qualified quickly lose their jobs and become a burden on the country's social welfare network. … It's also clear that with immigrant workers the danger of wage dumping and illegal work increases. The new wave of immigration is also sensitive from a political point of view. ... When the referendum on free movement of persons was held in February 2009, the Executive Federal Council made no mention in its little voting prospectus of the fact that unemployed people are allowed to move here too. It's got to the stage where the authorities now partially believe their own propaganda and evade questions on the subject by saying that unemployed citizens are not allowed into Switzerland. The reality is different. It's time the authorities acted accordingly." (03/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Stefan Schürer

Another Roma settlement was cleared last Monday in France and several families deported to their country of origin. The liberal-conservative daily Adevărul criticises representatives of relief organisations for failing to receive them on their arrival in Romania: "Every now and then the Roma NGOs write in the press that these deportations are cases of 'discrimination'. But unfortunately this criticism is all the so-called 'activists' are doing. … It's easier to formulate a few phrases at your office desk than to travel to a godforsaken village and convince three families to send their children to school. … It's easier to argue about whether we should call them 'gypsies' or 'Roma' on a TV talk show than to persuade the Bulibaşa [Roma leader] not to allow the marriage of minors. … It's easier, but it doesn't help. Because it changes nothing in the marginalised communities, no matter what their origin." (03/09/2012)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Integration, » Minorities, » France, » Romania
All available articles from » Mălin Bot

August 30 is the International Day of the Disappeared. The liberal daily Politis proposes the establishment of a truth commission similar to those set up in other countries to investigate the cases of those who disappeared before and after Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in 1974: "An important aspect of these commissions is that they give relatives the opportunity to state their case. They can tell their version of the truth, talk about their missing loved ones and tell society what it's like to live with the consequences, the questions and the secret hopes. The idea of forming such a commission may sound romantic or idealistic and beyond the scope of current political discussions. But that doesn't mean that nothing can be done. … The examples set by other countries are instructive and the only thing that is lacking is the political will. The question is how to give average citizens - not politicians or institutions - the possibility to tell their own truth." (02/09/2012)

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All available articles from » Nikolas Kyriakou