A number of Slovakian intellectuals have issued a joint appeal to end the tension between Slovakia and Hungary. Sociologist Martin Butora, publisher Laszlo Szigeti and Martin M. Simecka, editor-in-chief of Sme, are among the signatories of the appeal, which has been published in the newspaper. "Violence is contagious and spreads like an infection. We have to stop it from spiralling...,” the appeal says. "The politicians have the main responsibility. The question of tolerance toward a minority is not a matter for an administrative authority. The Slovak prime minister and president have not reacted adequately so far... The nationalism (of Hungarians and Slovakians) has caused a great deal of suffering in the past two hundred years. But at the end of the last century, Central Europeans decided in favour of freedom and democracy. It would be a disaster for Slovakia, for Hungary, for the cooperation of the Visegrad countries and for wider European society if this were to be destroyed now." (31/08/2006)

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Hungarian intellectuals have published an appeal expressing alarm and concern following the latest nationalist assaults against the Hungarian minority in Slovakia. The appeal calls on the governments of both countries to do everything possible to stop the conflict, pointing to the efforts being made by Slovakian intellectuals to do so. "We are fully aware that our common history has great significance and that it has been beset by problems. We know that this conflict can only be solved together and with shared determination, by drawing on the majority in both countries that is demanding a peaceful end to this conflict." (30/08/2006)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Minorities, » Hungary, » Slovakia

"A whole series of troubling incidents in Slovakia and the counter-reaction in Hungary, the continual riots against the Hungarian minority in the Serbian province of Vojvodina and the periodic flaring up of bad feelings between Hungary and Romania in Transylvania demonstrate the return of old enemy images and national clichés,” writes Paul Lenvai, a columnist of Hungarian origin. "Roughly two-and-a-half million Hungarians live in our neighbouring countries Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine. The majority of them supports the hard line of the Fidesz Party headed by Viktor Orban, the leader of the opposition and ex-prime minister of Hungary. In recent years, moderate politicians from the Hungarian minority have played a key part in guaranteeing the reform course in Slovakia and Romania. The attacks by chauvinistic mobs in Slovakia are a serious warning that, despite membership in the European Union, under specific circumstances, the old strain of nationalism can gain new political ground fast and give rise to trouble spots in the heart of Europe.” (31/08/2006)

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The deputy prime minister of Slovakia, Dusan Caplovic, has proposed a joint declaration by Hungary and Slovakia to end the tension between the two countries. He points to the German-Czech Declaration of 1997 as an example. In an interview with Lubos Palata, Caplovic explains that a Hungarian-Slovakian declaration would have to cover all the disputed historical questions. "We have to stop this mud-slinging over our borders,” Caplovic says. "Let's get together and talk it over with the prime ministers of both countries, the chairmen of our parliaments and our presidents. We can only sort things out at a round table." Caplovic opposes the idea of trying to create a pure nation state. "These notions come from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Slovakian society is multicultural, multi-ethnic and multilingual - the country wouldn't function otherwise. The things that flourish in this country happen where there's a mix of nationalities involved." (31/08/2006)

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The journalist Yassin Musharbash has analysed the change in the al-Qaida terror network and Jihadism since the attacks of September 11, 2001. "The new Jihadists are younger, better educated and more up-to-date than Osama's generation, but they are also more unpredictable. They have no experience in combat but they do have other technical skills. They think in networks because they are at home in the Internet. And they are already in the process of influencing a new kind of al- Qaida - not only with actions but with online debates as well. There's a possibility that al-Qaida will soon emulate the anti-globalisation movement, that has no centre but is nonetheless a political factor to be taken seriously and can organise large-scale political campaigns. A kind of Wiki-Qaida is also conceivable: an Internet-based Jihad project that anybody is allowed to write for, collaborate in and shape, and that simultaneously carries out terrible attacks in the real world... Only one thing is certain right now: the old al-Qaida no longer exists since September 12, 2001. And there is no precedent for the new al-Qaida. It is in the process of inventing itself - and what we are seeing is only its heralds." (31/08/2006)

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Abdelwahab Meddeb, Franco-Tunisian writer and essayist, in an interview with Gilles Anquetil and François Armanet, ponders the causes of Islamism. "The failure of post-colonial states has exhausted all hope. Their iniquity, their carelessness, and their despotism have contributed to the onset of such a malady. Dictatorships have prospered by desolating the political field. Reference to religion constitutes a last resort. (...) I deeply believe that the cure will notably come from Europe. It is in a position to use its exemplary profile: Having cleared-up its litigations, it can finally play an historical role in accordance with the principals it invented. Only Europe can master the double tension that structures our world: that between the old and the new and between East and West." (31/08/2006)

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Jurek Kuczkiewicz judges in an editorial that Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski proved not at all convincing on his visit to Brussels on Wednesday August 30th. "Mr. Barroso [President of the European Commisson] and Mr. Borrell [President of the European parliament] could only draw a sad conclusion: M. Kaczynski has not the slightest idea about Europe. The Polish Prime Minister only glimpses the European interests ... from the point of view of Polish national interests. ... In Brussels the question is no longer where Poland is headed, but how Europe can move on without its participation. Too bad for Poland. Too bad for the European Union too, who was really in need of the constructive regional leader over there. However, no one is irreplaceable." (31/08/2006)

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"The Kaczynskis [the Polish president Lech and his brother Jaroslaw, Polish Prime minister] are calling for nothing less than a new Polish state", write Jan Cienskiand and Stefan Wagstyl, in an article describing a deepening sense of isolation and a series of conflicts brought on by the two politicians in Poland and Europe. "At home, the twins have created a climate of concern - if not of fear - that is giving rise to new political divides. Abroad the Kaczynskis' nationalist rhetoric has irritated EU partners. ... The twins appeal to traditional values: their strong Catholicism, their negative view of homosexuality and their talk of reviving the death penalty are all at odds with mainstream western European opinion. The brothers are out to prove their theory that Poland has been hijacked by Communist-linked special interests at home and abroad." (31/08/2006)

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The journalist Antoine Maurice ponders the history of Romany people and their way of life. "Their way of life reposes on a highly structured clannish organisation that crosses borders and justice systems. Some characteristics are as limiting as their precarious, nomadic rag'n'bone status. In what is a transitional phase for Europe, plunged at once in historical grouping and 'deterretorialising' globalisation, traveller communities express both archaic and the most modern of European culture. Archaic, because of their minority enclosure. At the same time the Tzigans inhabit the music, languages, cultures and religions of Europe. Lacking a national aspiration of their own, they are able to slip, like genuine globalized people, into a number of them without ever losing their Tzigan identity." (31/08/2006)

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Descendants of holocaust victims wish to take legal action against the SNCF, France's railway company, for its role in the deportation of Jews during the second world war, in the hope of obtaining financial compensation. "One can only understand and bow before this still deep and raw pain. However, the action undertaken by some 200 people is somewhat disturbing", comments the daily. "What ever their motivation may be, the claimants and the lawyers advising them should beware of the perverse effects of their action. Particularly concerning young generations for whom deportation is a chapter in history and not a wound that has actually been experienced. The risk is quite simply that of trivialisation if deportation were to simply become a field, almost among others, for the exercise of 'judicialising' society. It would be wise to consider this." (31/08/2006)

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Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, vice-president of the Spanish government, expressed in Brussels on Wednesday, August 30th, Madrid's exasperation before EU commitment in the struggle against the constant flow of African emmigrants in the Canary Islands. The daiily doubts the sincerity of promises aid from European groups. "It is hoped that there will not be a repeat of May's scenario when the vice-president declared herself satisfied upon her return from Brussels with 15 measures under her arm. The slow pace at which the Frontex [Agency for the management of the external borders of the EU] mission has been carried out along the Atlantic and the stinginess of EU member states who are supposed to make means available shows that Europe, up until now at least, has not taken seriously the Cayucos [fortune boats], that are alarming Spain." (31/08/2006)

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An international donor conference for Lebanon is taking place today in Stockholm. The newspaper asks why Swedish prime minister Göran Persson was already advocating a conference of this kind in Sweden at the beginning of August, when the battles in Lebanon were still raging fiercely. Critics have voiced the opinion that with just over three weeks until the Swedish general elections, Persson wants to boost his image on the international stage. The newspaper comments: "It is hard to believe that 50 nations and a variety of international organizations are sending delegations to take part in an event in Stockholm mainly for the benefit of the Swedish government in its election campaign. The Lebanese government, which is bringing seven ministers, may cherish particularly high hopes. But just a few weeks before the elections, Persson can now don the mantle of an international statesman.” (31/08/2006)

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Members of the Estonian Parliament failed to elect a new president in the second round of voting yesterday. The popular Social Democrat Toomas Hendrik Ilves had the support of two right-wing parties but this was not enough for the required majority of 68 votes. Nils-Erik Friis points out that this was due to an agreement between the Centre Party and the People's Union. Together they account for 36 of the 101 seats in Parliament - but they did not nominate an opposing candidate. "The controversial leader of the Centre Party, Edgar Savisaar, already has his eye on the next parliamentary elections in March 2007. To boost his chances he made an agreement with the People's Union that its honorary chairman, Arnold Rüütel, should stay in office as president for another five years." (31/08/2006)

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In a critical review, Nikolaus Piper sums up 30 years of co-determination in Germany. "For exactly thirty years, German employees have had (almost) equal representation on the boards of directors of joint-stock companies with more than 2,000 employees. This level of worker participation is unique in Europe; in 14 of the 25 EU countries, trade unions have absolutely no established position in the decision-making bodies of enterprises, in the rest the regulations are much weaker than in Germany... Studies on the effects of co-determination in company boardrooms are contradictory. Some claim that unpleasant decisions are made with less opposition and strikes in Germany than in other places. Others say that the costs of co-determination are too high and that it slows down decision-making. This has made some firms want to relocate abroad. But the pressure does not seem great enough to make politicians or officials from the employers' side blaspheme against this symbol of German corporatism and risk the wrath of the trade unions." (31/08/2006)

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"Despite the request of the withdrawal of the 'Horizons' selection of the film 'Akamas', by Panikos Chrysanthou, the Venice festival has stood its ground", notes Marina Shiza. "The film will therefore be presented in Venice. For now, it is still being edited in Hungary, and will be sent to the Mostra on Friday. This delay is due to the Cypriot Ministry of education's decision to withdraw a supplementary subsidy of 15,000 euros which was due to be used for the finalisation of the film copy. This decision was taken after the director's refusal to cut a scene with the murder of a Greek Cypriot who resists British colonisation [in the 1950s] by a Turkish Cypriot who bears the name of a hero from Greek Cypriot history [Evagoras Pallikaridis, 1938-1957]. By pitching the entire intellectual class against it, the film is benefiting from exceptional promotion. But it has tainted the name of a country's national hero." (31/08/2006)

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The Mobile Academy is starting its latest session in Warsaw. According to the organizers, it is "a temporary learning unit that continually changes its location and offers an intensive interdisciplinary programme around a single theme.” Joanna Dekaczew points out that the project is in the Polish tradition of the "Flying University,” the name given to critical intellectual seminars held in private homes during the German occupation of Eastern Europe in the Second World War or during the Communist era. It is actually two Germans, Hannah Hurtzig and Carolin Hochleichter, who have now brought this concept to Warsaw. The theme of the current event is 'Ghosts, apparitions, phantoms and the places where they live.' "This time over 100 participants, artists and instructors will do the courses... They will ride through the city in trucks and walk around the site of the former ghetto at night. Topics include the invisible borders of censorship, ghosts hidden in loudspeakers, psychedelics, the memory of furniture, the phantom of the Warsaw Uprising, vanishing bodies, comics and graffiti." (30/08/2006)

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