The daily considers that Serbia will have a choice on Sunday between, "climbing one more step towards Europe or further engraining itself in the 'paleonationalism' that led this Balkan country to disaster. The latest polls predict a neck and neck competition between the reactionary alternative expressed by the radical Serb party (SRS) - credited with 30% in the surveys - and the hero of which, Vojislav Seselj, is appearing before the International Criminal Court in the Hague, and the civilised option of the Democratic party (DS) headed by the Serbian president Boris Tadic - who has 2 points less in the polls. The third protagonist, and possible joker, is the conservative and nationalist party (DSS) run by the retiring Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who is aspiring to a new mandate after three years of instability at the head of a minority coalition." (19/01/2007)

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Anikó Nánási considers the goals of Serbian President Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS) and of the Radical Party (SRS). The Democrats promised "the integration of Serbia in Europe, a democratic civil society with constitutional law, an economic upturn, a higher standard of living, and a reduction in criminality. They would probably follow up on these promises, were they not obliged constantly to tightrope walk between preserving national identity and the European idea... The Serbian Radical Party decries anyone keen to comply with the requirements of the international community as a traitor. It clings to its vision of a Greater Serbia and considers the alleged war criminal Ratko Mladic a hero, who should under no circumstances be delivered to the International Court in The Hague. The SRS wants to hold on to Kosovo at any price, even if Serbia has to go to war again. But does their top candidate, Tomislav Nikolic, really believe these goals are realistic?" (17/01/2007)

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Erich Rathfelder writes of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica: He "likes to describe himself as a conservative democrat. But such descriptions remain inappropriate in this country. Independent political coordinates have developed in Serbia's political spectrum." Recently, Kostunica has been taking an increasingly chauvinistic tone, suggests Rathfelder, which is why some of his fellow citizens already consider him a "modernizer of nationalism." Rathfelder's election predictions: "The Radical Party will regain its position as the strongest, with 35 percent. With some 20 percent of the vote for his Serbian Democratic Party, and with his coalition partner, the Serbian Renewal Movement, surely getting into Parliament with about 10 percent, Kostunica will be in the position to manoeuvre between the extremes - and to form a government again. And that is exactly the role he wants... In Serbia's future, there is no getting around Kostunica." (18/01/2007)

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In the run-up to the elections in Serbia, Martin Woker speculates on the political consequences of possible coalitions. Most important will be the position any future government takes on Kosovo: "And what if Kostunica's vows - that Kosovo will always be an essential part of Serbia - are more than just election rhetoric? What if, contrary to all reason, he really does align himself with the Radicals, who after all are closest to him ideologically?... That kind of scenario will undoubtedly aggravate the situation in the secessionist province of Kosovo, with unpredictable results throughout the region." (17/01/2007)

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"Soon after Serbia's parliamentary election on January 21st, Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president asked by the United Nations to produce a plan for the future of Kosovo, will present his ideas. Since 1999 Kosovo has been under UN jurisdiction. Technically it is part of Serbia, but 90% of its 2m people are ethnic Albanians who want full independence. Mr Ahtisaari's plan will suggest that Kosovo becomes independent, but only with conditions", remarks the weekly. "One is clear: Kosovo will unite neither with Albania nor with Albanian-inhabited parts of Macedonia.In the 1990s, when the old Yugoslavia collapsed in blood, Serbs and Croats tried to carve out a Greater Serbia and a Greater Croatia. Many Serbs feel that it is thus only a matter of time before Albanians seek a Greater Albania. Yet neither in Kosovo nor in Albania have politicians advocating union ever made headway." (19/01/2007)

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Roger Köppel uses an article by former German President Roman Herzog as a starting point to discuss Europe's "institutional weaknesses." Herzog had lamented that German laws were increasingly pre-determined in Brussels, which was undercutting parliamentary democracy. Köppel agrees wholeheartedly with Herzog: "The process of European jurisprudence is influenced for the most part by the Council of Ministers. This body is occupied by executive politicians of EU countries. But once they come to Brussels, they mutate into legislative politicians. In other words, the EU, which celebrates itself as a guarantor of democracy and due process, essentially negates the principle of separation of powers by handing over essential legislative functions to representatives of the executive.... In plain words, EU is a poorly constructed institution, urgently in need of an overhaul. Switzerland did well to keep its distance, bilaterally." (18/01/2007)

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Elfriede Jelinek, 2004 Nobel Prize Winner for literature, evokes her book 'The Children of the Dead( in an interview with Nicolas Weill. The Austrian author explains that it her duty to tear 'the mask of innocence' off Austria. "As a figure, Haider, that is to say the new political right that he once personified, signifies the continuity of a modern fascism dressed up as a young and seductive 'Führer'. With Haider, a fashionable, athletic youth replaced the old Nazis with all of their war stories, as the representative promoter of this modern fascism. This kind of creature and its perennial resurgence, naturally scratches away at Austria's mythical eternal innocence, long maintained, up until the 1980s ... , an image of Austria that had edified itself as an isolated victim, a helpless little country assaulted by Hitler ... ." (19/01/2007)

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After a power struggle in the Christian Social Union, Bavarian Minister President Edmund Stoiber has announced he will resign in September. The Czech media has been following this story with particular interest, because Stoiber is also the patron of the Sudeten Germans who were expelled from Czechoslovakia after the war. Luboš Palata comments: "Edmund Stoiber travelled the world, was greeted in Washington, Peking or Moscow. But this minister president of 12 million Bavarians has never officially been in Prague. Now, it's the German government that is a partner with the Czech government. Stoiber showed himself to be fully dedicated to his role, prescribed in the Bavarian constitution, as patron of the Sudeten Germans - the 'fourth branch of Bavaria', transferred from Bohemia. With Stoiber, we lose a minister president who had an emotional relationship with Czech people. But even without Stoiber and the dwindling numbers of Sudeten Germans, Bavaria remains an important neighbour - the most important, after the Germans." (19/01/2007)

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Marcin Zaborowski, Polish writer and researcher specialising in European politics, considers the relationship between Germany and Poland. "As the largest state in formerly communist Europe, Poland occupied a special place in Berlin's foreign policy. Poland's post-1989 politicians, in turn, believed the road to the European Union ran straight through Berlin. There were signs of harmony between the two states: Berlin supported Poland's efforts to join western institutions, German exports to Poland boomed and the process of reconciliation moved apace. Today, the relationship has reverted to bickering. .... Warsaw and Berlin are now at odds over the Baltic pipeline and their relations with Russia. But perhaps the biggest worry is that they increasingly clash over interpretations of the past. Why is this happening now after Poland joined the EU? The accession was supposed to accelerate, not set back, the 'rapprochement' process." (19/01/2007)

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It was revealed this week that Romania's liberal-democratic ruling coalition is accomodating the interests of local oligarchs - specifically that in early 2005, Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu intervened on behalf of an oligarch in legal trouble. So far, the government has escaped unscathed. Traian Ungureanu asks: "Will Romania overtake Russia? Will it become a 100 percent oligarchy, a puppet making money for the bosses? Or are we headed for a more lawful future? That would be enormous for Romania. This is the conflict that has been playing out before our eyes for two years now, and it is our country's biggest problem." (19/01/2007)

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"One out of five Greeks is living beneath the poverty line [19.6%]!" exclaims the daily, commenting on the results of an official report published on January 18th. "With eleven million inhabitants, this is alarming! ... How to believe in the governments will to reform the social welfare system? This is like confronting the Minotaur! With a minimum wage of 591 euros and a parallel economy [non-declared work] that apparently represents around 40% of the GDP, how can sustainable solutions be provided? This is also the question the socialist opposition is asking itself accusing the government of making the poor poorer and the rich richer. But this is not an electoral debate! It is time to act, knowing that 27.9% are people aged over 65 who do not have enough to eat!" (19/01/2007)

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The chronicler Ana Sa Loppes regrets that the question of legalising abortion is to be the object of a new referendum in Portugal on February 11th. "The strength of the 'no' campaign [opposed to abortion] lies in its emotional ferocity, founded on questions of faith. They are of course respectable, but inexplicable in the light of the penal law that strives to govern the problems of mankind and those of any God. By surrendering the revision of penal law to popular vote, the legislator has decided to submit it to faith and emotions. It is now easy to see the reasons for the victory of the 'no' vote eight years ago in a referendum where over half of the electorate saw no reason to participate in the vote." (19/01/2007)

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All available articles from » Ana Sá Lopes

To this day, over 2,700 French people have received the title of 'Juste' for having saved Jews during the German Occupation. The French President Jacques Chirac paid them a solemn tribute on Thursday, January 18th, during an official ceremony organised in the Paris Pantheon. "Allowing the French to look their past in the eye is something that Jacques Chirac will be remembered for", considers Jean-Michel Thénard. "The role of a Head of State is not to write history, but to help the people take it on in all its authenticity. With his speech in 1995, the first president of the Fifth Republic to recognise the responsibilty of the French in the deportation of 75,000 Jews turned the page on a pernicious Gaullist mythology. ... For having been fed on hero worship perpetuated by Mitterrand who compromised with Vichy, the French were taken by surprise. ... The repentance is now begining to fade, giving way to that 'light' emanating from the 'Justes'." (19/01/2007)

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Poland is currently absorbed in debate about the spying activities of the former communist secret service, SB. In her 2005 book "Oblawa" (the hunt), author Joanna Siedlecka describes how the secret service treated writers. She tells Maciej Urbanowski that the heads of the Polish writers' association in particular have avoided looking back at their involvement in the secret service. "Because it was not true that the security service itself spied on and destroyed writers... It was the committees, the leading intellectuals and the establishment who eliminated the rebels and in that way served the purposes of the Secret Service. Mostly, their actions had nothing to do with literature, but everything to do with apartments, power, jobs and travel privileges. Writers who were prepared to collaborate received honours in the People's Republic. They had apartments in the Aleja Roz or Iwicka Street - a marvellous life... Writers destroyed other writers. The SB, the Party or the Interior Ministry only set the rules." (19/01/2007)

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"Red T-shirts printed with a big 'CCCP,' the initials of the Soviet Union in Cyrillic, are a big hit with the youth in Riga, as are caps with hammer and sickle appliqués," reports Thomas Urban. He compares how Latvians and Estonians look back at their history: Lithuanians prefer a more differentiated approach to the history of occupation - partly to avoid conflict with their Russian-speaking minority.The Estonians prefer a confrontational approach towards Russia. But here, too, more voices are calling for a relaxed view of the past. "Political scientist Heiko Paabo of the University of Tartu advises against banning the hammer and sickle, lest it becomes a protest symbol used expressly to provoke the state. A ban also would play into the hand of nationalist forces in Russia. Paabo suggests taking it easy, especially given the prevailing mood among younger Russians in the Baltic region: most of them are pleased that their countries are in the European Union. They are not merely resigned to it, but are actively proud of being 'Eurorusians.' Only a small, if vocal, group wears T-shirts with CCCP on them." (19/01/2007)

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