The journalist Tariq Ali considers that Tony Blair's depature announcement was spun in classic New Labour fashion: "A carefully selected audience, a self-serving speech, the quivering lip and soon the dramaturgy was over. ... Tony Blair's principal success was in winning three general elections in a row. A second-rate actor, he turned out to be a crafty and avaricious politician. Bereft of ideas, he eagerly grasped and tried to improve on Margaret Thatcher's legacy. But though in many ways Blair's programme has been a euphemistic, if bloodier, version of Thatcher's, the style of their departures is very different. Thatcher's overthrow by her fellow Conservatives was a matter of high drama. Blair makes his unwilling exit against a backdrop of car bombs and carnage in Iraq, with hundreds of thousands left dead or maimed from his policies, and London a prime target for terrorist attack." (11/05/2007)

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Ian Davidson states in an article posted on the website of Project Syndicate that "Tony Bair will mainly go down in History for his strategic mistake of leading Britain into the war in Iraq. Among Blair's shortcomings is his sanctimoniousness and an excessive certainty, perhaps an extrapolation of his Christian faith, knowing what is right so that he is authorized to act in accordingly. In the case of the war in Iraq, Blair never admitted that his concept of the war was mistaken and its practice a disaster: for him it was still 'the right thing to do'. ... It is not sure that Tony Blair might have been able to dissuade George Bush from going to war in Iraq. Nonetheless, by enthusiastically supporting Bush's war, he has compromised his legacy forever." (11/05/2007)

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"Blair is off and blairism remains", notes the editorialist Philippe Bach for whom Blair "marvellously embodies the drifting of social-democracy towards liberal theses. In this respect he will have marked his era, but not in a glorious manner. ... The dismantlement of the public services was pursued under his reign, notably in the central domain of schools. Disadvantaged layers of society are struggling to be guaranteed public services as basic as water provision. And only once trains were repeatedly derailed did the failure of the privatisation of certain services become obvious enough for the British model to cease shining on the continent. ... The drifting and slippage embodied by Tony Blair surpass the individual and these cleavages between the Keynesian version of social-democracy and its liberal mutation are occurring in most left-wing parties. His departure will not resolve this." (11/05/2007)

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Tony Blair knew how to do a balancing act between liberalism and solidarity, according to Laurent Joffrin who highlights the success of his politics on the home front. "There are more millionaires in Great Britain than before. But there are far fewer poor people. There are many people who are thus set aside from economic activity. But the labour market is efficient and work is easy to find. Inequalities have grown. But never before has a British government invested so much in the public sector, especially in education with the creation of a considerable amount of jobs in the public service as well. In short, Blair the liberal has reinforced the instruments of solidarity while at the same time developing the market economy. We cannot simply imitate this special experience, but we can at least meditate upon it." (11/05/2007)

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Per Gudmundson points out that Blair had a great impact on European political style: "It's hard to imagine what a modern European politician would look like, if there hadn't been a Blair. For example, Fredrik Reinfeldt and his 'New Moderates' would never have won the elections in Sweden without New Labour. Party dogmatism was deferred in favour of pragmatism, the ability to act, and moral backbone, without giving up ideological grounding. This method was often described, slightly deceptively, as a path towards the centre. But it's really about something else entirely: it's about representing a middle class in a believable manner, a middle class that, being relatively new, does not fit into the old templates." (11/05/2007)

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Philosopher Boris Groys tells Sonja Zekri what the dispute about the Soviet memorials in Eastern European countries is all about: "The whole conflict is related to a growing nationalism in all the Eastern European countries. In Estonia and Poland, that is why the communist past is dragged in. It is seen as an occupation by Russia. Everything is put in terms of an ethnic conflict between Estonians and Russians. I don't agree with this view of history, but that's how it is. And the further this ethnicisation of communism goes, most of it via self-exculpation, the more tensions we can expect." (11/05/2007)

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The Turkish journalist Ali Bayramoglu, chronicler in the daily Yeni Safak, analyses the current crisis between the Turkish government and the army in the light of the "ever widening gap between the urban, westernised 'centre' that has managed to control religion and a provincial 'periphery' that is traditional, religious and orientalised. Up until the1980s, the political stability and social balance were maintained by keeping these two groups apart. Over these past few years the distance has narrowed between the two groups and points in common have been found as well as points of contention. ... Today, the fact that the 'periphery' is taking charge of the 'presidential question' is provoking discomfort and reactions in the 'centre'. This latter, rather than respond with moderation, has reacted with strict secularism, taking measures to impose its priorities. The army and the regulatory authority [of the army over the government] are the strongest assets of the 'centre'." (10/05/2007)

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The dispute is escalating over Poland's lustration law, according to which 700,000 Poles have to turn in a declaration regarding their possible secret service work. On Thursday, one day before the Constitutional Court was to deliver its verdict on the law, the government recalled two constitutional judges, saying they had worked for the secret service. Editor in chief Robert Krasowski is furious about this "war of lustration": "What happened yesterday is outrageous. How can one organ of power control another? Only to intimidate it and force the other into making a decision that is favourable to itself? This is an unprecedented scandal... Even if the charge eventually is confirmed that the expelled judges were agents, the manner in which this was released - with demonstrative brutality and obvious political interest - is unacceptable in a constitutional state." (11/05/2007)

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In Germany, there has been an outcry over searches conducted on globalisation critics, who are suspected of having committed arson. Were the raids in Hamburg and Berlin, where computers and documents were confiscated, legal? Richard Meng thinks not: "As one overreaction follows another, hope is dying only four weeks before the G 8 summit in Heiligendamm that ideas will be the focus of the important discussion about the results of globalisation. It is becoming more obvious just how problematic the judicial construction is, and thus the basis of the raids... This time it was quite obviously about the authorities taking a quick, unannounced look into the headquarters of the 'Black Blocks' [militant demonstrators]. It can turn out to have been extremely careless, in the poltical sense, to have justified this act through the danger of terrorism. Because this can accelerate the process of fragmentation already underway in the autonomous activist scene, by which the few especially pigheaded members claim that the state's behaviour provides legitimacy for violent 'resistance'." (11/05/2007)

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President Traian Basescu is campaigning so that the people will vote against his suspension in the19 May referendum. On Wednesday, he published a list of oligarchs whom he accuses of controlling the political scene. Cristian Tudor Popescu sees it as a campaign trick: "The tactic of President Traian Basescu is simple, fast and cheap: I, Traian Basescu, share with you the black list of oligarchy – and you, the people, get heated up and herd them together with pitchfork and axe onto the public square. First, Basescu published a list of major businesses, then a list of unpopular journalists and now a list of oligarchs … Actually, only King Michael was missing. But he emerged yesterday afternoon, because he has a good sense of the right moment. After 17 years we are back at the same political and moral level of civilization as 1990: We have a system of justice where defence lawyers roar more accusingly than state prosecutors, a president who incites the people to punish the 'bad guys', and a monarch who wants to save Romania." (11/05/2007)

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The columnist Thomas Ferenzi analyses the latest successes of the right in Europe, from the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy in France and the rise of the right in British polls to the swing to the right, in Scandinavian countries. "In most European countries a demand for order and authority provoked by the world's upheavals is favourable for the right. The social-democratic model offers an imperfect response to this demand. Its foundations have indeed been shaken up. Traditionally it rested on two pillars: a compromise between capital and work, an agreement between the working class and the middle class. But globalisation has put the first pillar in danger while a rise in inequalities has made the second less steady. This is the difficulty that the social democrats need to overcome if they are to regain the support of public opinion. Some of them have already advanced in their renovation work, others, like the French, are only just beginning." (11/05/2007)

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The editorialist Ricardo Gutiérez takes a positive view of the rally that is due this weekend to gather 5000 Muslims in the Parc des Expositions in Brussels, to consider Islam and secularism. "Discriminated against for too long, pushed into second place, reduced to the one dimension of their faith. ... The Belgian 'Muslims' are intent on overcoming prejudiced notions. Loud and clear, they are claiming their rightful place in society as fully fledged citizens. They want to play a role in a secular society, sharing as they do its essential values. ... It is with this transverse and secular commitment, insomuch as it refuses to limit itself to an exclusively religious, prescriptive and coercive identity, that Belgian society will definitely be reassured about the diversity that is permeating it." (11/05/2007)

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The Slovakian government says the country's press is not objective, and that it criticises the government too much. Journalists fear that a kind of censorship will be introduced through a new media law. Martin Masek finds the government's charges not totally unjustified, and points to the low level of Slovakian tabloid journalism: "The behavior of boulevard media, but also of the boulevard sections in serious papers, come close to pure stupidity. So-called infotainment turns important news into irrelevancy and capitalizes on idiocy. Important people are written out, and unimportant ones are turned into stars. This tabloid principle has conquered serious journalism and pushed it to the fringes of society. But because the current government deliberately also benefited from this kind of journalism before the elections, it cannot now expect the papers to behave like respectable intellectuals towards the government." (11/05/2007)

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From the start of this century, so-called "rubble bars" have popped up in buildings in Budapest that were slated to be torn down or that are waiting for restoration. Most of these sites also offer cultural programmes. Usually, these venues - mostly illegal - are closed up after a short time. Cultural scientist Gábor Vályi laments: "If there were a dialog between the local authorities and creative artists, these institutions might have a chance… but that's not the case. There is a lack of clear regulations and a communal and tourist strategy to capitalize on these cultural venues. At the same time, these "rubble bars" boost the image of Budapest. It's the only city with such bars, and the cultural events that take place there don't fit in the conventional cultural scene. We appreciate this unique bar culture as well as the indifference that led to these buildings falling apart. We're also grateful to those who have done something with these degenerate buildings, filling them with treasures." (11/05/2007)

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The Cyprus daily notes that a "report by the [British] House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on recent visits to Cyprus and Turkey takes the pulse on both sides of the Green Line and also in Ankara. It also outlines British government's perspective on Cyprus. In a section relating to contacts between the two sides, the report said the lack of dialogue between the two sides was disappointing.'For example, for the purposes of official meetings, the Committee [the Committee on Missing Persons] has to find, or create from scratch, an English name for each place in Cyprus, as neither side will agree to use the other's place names.'The Foreign Affairs Committee said there was also a big gap between the Greek Cypriots' and the Turkish Cypriots' ideas for a solution to the Cyprus problem. ... From a Greek Cypriot perspective, Cyprus as a full member of the EU could use its present leverage over Turkey to achieve an acceptable solution. It could also ask the EU to guarantee implementation of such a solution." (10/05/2007)

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