Commentator Dag Danis harshly criticises election winner Robert Fico's planned coalition of Social Democrats, Vladimir Meciar's HZDS party and the hard-line right-wing National Party. "Let's be honest: such a government would be primitive, not only because it's led by a populist (Fico), a liar (Meciar) and a heavy drinker (leader of the National Party Jan Slota), but because the coalition Fico has chosen is highly problematic in terms of agenda, politics and the human component. The Social Democrats have no experience in government and very few people at their disposal. Compared with politicians like the current Finance Minister Ivan Miklos or Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan, they look like second or third leaguers. But this government's greatest problem is its politically and morally questionable character." (30/06/2006)

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"Election winner Robert Fico has chosen the easiest option for a coalition despite the fact that it could be the most difficult option for Slovakia," writes Burkhard Bischof. "Nonetheless, that which applies for other countries with experimental governments, and that Austria would have wished for from the rest of the world in the first days of its black-blue coalition, should also apply for Slovakia: that people first take the time to examine exactly what this populist alliance entails before they start hacking away at it. After all, political propagandists like Slota have found a place and still have a place in many governments of Western Europe. And anyway, the economy and investors are likely to react much more sensitively and rapidly if the new government in Bratislava plans to turn back the wheel of reform." (30/06/2006)

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Tibor Kis says a government consisting of Social Democrats, Meciar's HZDZ party and the National Party would be scandalous, adding that Meciar and Slota are notorious in Europe: "They stand for a period of domestic and ethnic tensions as well as serious conflicts with the EU, NATO and certain neighbouring countries. Hungarian-Slovakian relations reached an all-time low during Meciar's time in government." In Budapest there are fears that the protection of minorities will suffer: "The Hungarian minority in Slovakia remembers Meciar's anti-Hungarian policies well, and even most Slovaks thought Slota was an idiot when he said things like they should invade Budapest in tanks or that the Hungarians were a 'Mongolian race' that had only become European after living with Slavic peoples for hundreds of years. Now, Slota is suddenly an important government politician – a pillar of the coalition." (30/06/2006)

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Ulrich Schmid assumes that the EU will give the new Slovakian government a lukewarm reception, and with good reason, because the goverment looming in Slovakia is even worse than the populist government in Poland: "Jan Slota's SNS is far worse than Lepper's Samoobrona or the League of Polish Families, and the Smer party is a long way from having the often underrated anti-communist qualities of the Kaczynski brothers' Law and Justice Party." For liberal Slovaks, Vladimir Meciar, of all people, is the only hope. It's not entirely improbable that the old patriarch will end up falling out with Fico over the distribution of posts and sinecures. If the HZDS went over to the Liberals led by incumbent Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, Slovakia would narrowly escape a populist coalition." (30/06/2006)

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Sami Nair, a political science researcher and immigration specialist, regrets that "the draconian laws pertaining to the acquisition of a work permit, along with the fear of losing this permit if one leaves the host country" prevent immigrants from regularly returning to their native countries. He calls for "the establishment of free movement between the host country and the country of origin. A mobility that must be regulated by bilateral agreements and serve as an engine driving a genuine strategy of developmental aid. Free movement would be cost-effective for host countries, which would be able to benefit from new and varied forces while improving their commercial relationships with the migrants' countries of origin. Portuguese immigration in Europe offers a splendid example of the fruitful dynamic that exists between Portugal and the countries that take in its citizens. Why couldn't Europe do the same with northern and sub-Saharan Africa?" (30/06/2006)

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"The Nordic model has something for everyone," writes financial journalist Inga Michler. "But this is precisely the problem. The approaches to problem solving in Denmark, Sweden and Finland are so diverse and the conditions in each country so different, that there's no way you can derive 'the ideal model' for Germany from them." Finland's education policy is a clear example: "For years now, this country, which educates its children at comprehensive schools until they're 16, has had the top ranking in the PISA student achievement study. But should this model be adopted in Germany? Only to a limited extent because Finland has hardly any immigrants." Whether you're talking about Denmark's "flexicurity" model, paternity leave in Finland or Swedish fiscal policy: "There are many good ideas in the North, but there's not a standard model that could be taken as a whole and implemented in Germany." (30/06/2006)

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Journalist Raoul du Pré comments on the resignation of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Thursday, June 29. The move came after Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk reversed her decision to revoke the Dutch citizenship of the Somalia-born former MP, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. "In a very short time, Balkenende went from being an unknown academic to prime minister. But his two governments suffered inglorious falls. ... Balkenende nonetheless had a dream start in politics. But the erosion of his image as a leader was as rapid as his ascent ... Has history known other heads of government who lost as many members of their cabinet in four years?" the journalist asks, offering up the long list of ministers who resigned. (30/06/2006)

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Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, announced on Thursday, June 29 the official opening of a dialogue between the government and the separatist Basque organisation ETA, talks aimed at bringing an end to 28 years of armed conflict. The daily points out that "the previous governments of Felipe Gonzalez in 1989 and Jose Maria Aznar in 1998 established contacts with ETA, without ever informing either parliament or the public at large. Zapatero would have preferred to seek parliament's consent, but he was unable to so do ... due to the absence of support for the peace process on the part of the opposition. ... He could have contented himself with informing the parliamentary groups, one by one. But he did not want to sacrifice a gesture that is more symbolic and newsworthy, than institutional: he chose to deliver his speech to parliament, rather than consulting with it." (30/06/2006)

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A week ago the non-party Polish Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska resigned. She had been accused of having worked for the communist secret police, an accusation she had always denied. Following her resignation, the court leading the inquiries dropped the case because according to Polish law only politicians holding office are subject to investigation under the Lustration Law. The case has triggered a heated discussion about how to deal with the country's secret service past. Former Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski comments: "The conclusion to be drawn from the entire affair is that we have a sick Lustration Law that needs to be thoroughly reassessed. Something must be very wrong when a prime minister is unable to learn the truth about the members of his government. I pity the prime minister, but above all I pity Gilowska. You can't blacken someone's name like this and then not give them the full opportunity to defend themselves." (30/06/2006)

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"Skirmishes between the judiciary and politicians are now so regular that they create the impression of an undeclared war," the daily asserts, likening the US Supreme Court's rebuff to George W. Bush over the Guantanamo prison camp to similar legal battles in Britain. This week, a UK high court judge ruled that six out of 14 government 'control orders' - a form of house arrest for terror suspects - breached basic human rights. "In looking again at the restrictions, the principle must be to keep them to the minimum genuinely needed for public protection and avoid instead punishing people who, it is essential to underline, may not have committed any crime. A robust judiciary can and should ensure that this happens by forcing the government to argue the necessity of what it seeks to do at every stage. It is only in this context that a legitimate case for control orders can be made." (30/06/2006)

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The period of grace granted by the French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, to thousands of families of illegal immigrants whose children attend school in France expires this Friday, June 30. "It is thought that there at least 400,000 immigrants in an irregular situation in France, including 50,000 school-age children," the Flemish weekly points out. "In most cases, these are children born in France, who do not speak the language of their country of origin and have no ties to the latter." The newspaper mentions the work of the Education Without Borders network, which "urges citizens to prevent the deportation of the children and their parents by hiding them from the police. In Marseille alone, there are thought to be around 700 to 800 'sponsorships' of children, and the association estimates that some 60,000 signatures have been collected across the country against France's new immigration policy." (30/06/2006)

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According to a recent study by the University of Geneva, three out of five Swiss think there are too many foreigners in the country. Editor-in-chief Alain Jeannet refuses to believe this. "Let's be clear: conceptual tools such as those used by the Geneva researchers are distorted. ... From reading the Geneva sociologists, one would think the world is divided between those who accept foreigners without restriction and those who reject them straight off on the grounds that 'the boat is full'. A world writ in black and white, the evil people on the right, the good people on the left." However, "the movement we see taking shape these days to fight against the Blocher laws [on asylum and foreigners] shows the inanity of partisan labels. Within this vast, heterogeneous front one finds bourgeois politicians, representatives of the economy, the churches, eminent historians, the left, big cities..." (30/06/2006)

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The daily calls for the EU to "prove itself" following new incidents involving illegal migrants in Malta. "The arrival of another 266 illegal immigrants on Tuesday night [June 27] and the breakout by about 400 migrants from their detention centre earlier that same day serve to highlight difficulties that ought to be the focus of attention for the government and opposition, the security forces, the detainees themselves, our European partners and public opinion. ... The time for the European Parliament and Commission to turn from words to action that will substantially alleviate the pressure on Malta is yesterday. The situation in Malta is already bad as it is and it can only get worse. The international community, but especially our EU partners, must get involved in a far more visible manner than they have done so far." (30/06/2006)

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"A nation of losers who happen to win", runs the headline to Andrew Gimson's commentary about the peculiar appeal to Britons of the "implausible victory". He asserts that while "the Australians' self-image includes the idea that in major sporting contests they will be victorious, our own tends to involve ample psychological preparation for defeat. We are reduced to hoping that some player of infinite promise, such as [footballer Paul] Gascoigne or [Wayne] Rooney, will at the last moment lift us above our normal, inadequate level. We are looking again for a miracle, and have had to content ourselves so far with barely competent performances, with the result that we approach tomorrow's quarter-final against Portugal with our trepidation inadequately concealed behind a forest of St George's flags. There is a certain virtue to not appearing to take these things too seriously." (30/06/2006)

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Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany writes a blog every day that is not only read by many citizens but is often quoted by the media. According to Istvan Devenyi, political web logs are about to make a breakthrough in Europe, but he adds that governments should not abuse personal Internet diaries by making them their main means of conveying information. "Following the elections, the prime minister's web log came to dominate the government's communication with the country. For two weeks, Ferenc Gyurcsany made no public appearances but instead transmitted the most important information to his citizens via the Internet. This is a convenient communication strategy because it prevents journalists, experts and opposition politicians from asking any awkward questions. In addition to accounts of his dog Toto's latest adventures, the prime minister mentioned in passing how high the household deficit is – something that until then had been kept secret." (30/06/2006)

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The journalist Serge July, who co-founded the Liberation newspaper in 1973 with Jean-Paul Sartre, has been forced to resign as the daily's editor over differences with its main shareholder. Today he publishes his last editorial. "I am leaving 'Liberation' because it is the final service I can render to ensure the survival of this enterprise and this team. ... 'Liberation' remains one of the leading French dailies. Like all the paying generalist dailies in the world, Liberation is confronting the maelstrom of the digital revolution which is a more intense, more violent and faster version of what we have seen in all industrial revolutions in which each new day upended the prevailing order of things. ... I wish 'Liberation' good luck. It is on the cusp of new changes. Yet I hope it will remain the editorial powerhouse that it is, able to produce tomorrow's leading newspapers - whether print, electronic, radio or mobile phone-based." (30/06/2006)

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The exhibition "Pierre Bourdieu – The Algerian War and Photography" is currently on show at Hamburg's Deichtorhallen. The French philosopher and sociologist served as a soldier in Algeria between 1955 and 1958 and then took up a teaching position at the University of Algiers. Frank Keil went to see the photos: "Here they are, the always piercing, sometimes drastic pictures like that of the demonstrator shot dead on the street, a group of people standing over him. And the scenes of everyday life with rebellious European women in Western dress walking along the main street, or the references to painting in the benevolent French landowner surrounded by his respectful, admiring native employees and servants, as if the world was perfect…[Bourdieu's photography] refers to the efforts of analysis, demands precision; it answers with the insight that complex changes must be examined and conveyed in a complex manner." (30/06/2006)

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Columnist Malin Siwe takes an ironic view of the plans to ban telephoning in cars in Sweden, saying they may as well ban all passengers in cars because any type of conversation, and screaming kids in particular, distracts and causes stress in many drivers. She adds: "They should just ban all traffic. Then there wouldn't be any more accidents, or environmental damage. Göran Petersson's goal of reducing petrol consumption by 40 percent by 2020 would be achieved in next to no time. The nation's health would reach an all-time high if everyone went round on bikes and grew their own food. Things would certainly be safer, but at the expense of freedom, diversity and flexibilty. He who always puts safety first destroys the very life he is trying to save." (30/06/2006)

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