The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung draws a positive balance of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to France: "Seldom has there been as much unity in Paris between the dynamic Sarkozy and the smart Benedict. This has been a rare meeting between a French president obliged by the constitution to a strict separation of church and state and a Pope who must hold to the word of the Bible, yet who may interpret it as he sees fit. ... In the three and a half years of his pontificate, Benedict XVI has gone about his rallying work in a calm and patient manner, eager not to leave the field of reason solely to modern proponents of the Enlightenment. ... In this way, the intellectual at the Holy See revealed the folly of the prominent French laicists, former presidents and much vaunted professors who will hear nothing of the Christian roots of Europe. ... And in the end he made a bid for a return to the well-proven Christian foundation of European values, where one may find better and more human treasures than in any other culture. In all Christian modesty, of course." (15/09/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Social movements, » Weltanschauung, » France
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Pope Benedict XVI has two goals with his visit to France, Cotidianul newspaper writes. "On the one hand the Pope is attempting to revive Catholicism in Europe, and here France represents a major hurdle. Of the 65 percent of the French who tick the 'Catholic' box in population censuses, only one fifth go to church at least once a month. The French crusade seemed like an 'unattainable mission' from the word go, not just because of French secularism, but also because of the new Pope, who is less popular and more dogmatic than John Paul II. ... By contrast, Nicolas Sarkozy had hoped the Pope's visit would be a boon to him in the next elections. ... Sarkozy is no adamant Christian. With three marriages behind him he makes no bones about only visiting the church 'from time to time'. Now he is trying to restore the culture of the religious wars in France." (15/09/2008)

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Aldo Schiavone comments in the daily La Repubblica on the asymmetry between the principle of freedom and the principle of unity evident in the speech Pope Benedict XVI delivered at the Collège des Bernadins in Paris on Sunday. "The Pope has revealed the true mission of his term in office: to appeal to people's reason before appealing to their hearts, to engineer a great theological concept that reconciles the Church with modernity and faith with reason. ... The path to salvation is to link up the principles of freedom and unity. The situation is complicated by the fact that the Church sees specific manifestations of these principles - such as those to do with the family, life, death, the role of women - as direct consequences of the absolute, as direct and irrevocable echoes of the Word of God. This results in an irreparable asymmetry that compromises the possibility of a new alliance between reason and faith: while the concept of freedom has had a defining influence on the history of mankind and can always be called into question, the concept of unity that the Church claims for its own is of supernatural origin, and one must submit to it." (15/09/2008)

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In its leading article French daily Le Figaro describes the Pope's visit to France as a success: "A smile comes to one's face on reading the dramatic remarks with which Pope Benedict XVI was received in France last week: Does he have the right profile? Is he the one our society has been waiting for? ... He referred to laicism ... in the presence of the President of the Republic. He presented the intellectuals with a brilliant doctrine on history and theology. ... On Sunday he spent a lot of time addressing the bishops - in a brotherly manner but also with resoluteness. ... His argument is simple: ... Catholics must assume an active role, they must intervene 'promptly and in unison' ... This lecture on courage delivered by Benedict XVI was not only addressed to the members of the clergy ... but to all those who want to do good." (15/09/2008)

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The European foreign ministers meet today to negotiate a joint stance vis-à-vis Moscow. The daily newspaper Trouw writes that as part of its strategy Europe needs to focus on developing a common energy policy: "But while Russia is using its state-owned energy companies to achieve its power-political aims, Europe is acting less cleverly. EU countries are competing with one another to sign oil and gas deals with Russia. This allows Russia to play European countries off against each other. ... After what happened in Georgia we can no longer close our eyes to Russia's 'divide and rule' policy. ... If there was a greater consensus in Europe the situation would be different. Russia heavily depends on the EU as a buyer for its gas. The gas pipelines run to Western Europe, not to China. But without a common external energy policy Europe remains in a weak position vis-à-vis those who control the gas supplies - despite the fact that this is a neighbour who has a dubious record." (15/09/2008)

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The Austrian parties are trying to cover up the issue of EU integration in the election campaign, yet it is precisely on this topic that Austria's politicians are most divided, Der Standard newspaper writes: "The parties' reticence on the subject of Europe policy is as strange as it is counterproductive: strange because it was the EU dispute that precipitated the collapse of the red-black coalition and is the reason why we are now holding elections. One would have thought the key question 'What do you think about Austria's role in Europe?' would be the main debate. ... There are no longer any major political or economic decisions that the nation can make without consulting others - unless this is changed again and the EU partners agree to it. With the advent of the single market, the removal of borders, the introduction of the euro and the convergence [within the EU] of virtually all the important areas of policy Austria has only limited sovereignty. ... Therefore it is only on the surface that Europe is not a major topic - it nonetheless plays a key role and will perhaps even determine the make-up of the coalition." (15/09/2008)

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Zoltán Kovács, editor in chief of Élet és Irodalom, reflects on the inadequacies of political programmes in Hungary. Bucking the trend, he advocates a government of experts: "Flying in the face of his putatively well-meant intentions, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány has been writing nothing but survival programmes for the past year. His most recent programme is a case in point. ... It always runs ... along the same lines. The prime minister consults no one but his own advisors, puts in an appearance from time to time at some institute, asylum or home, then makes ardent televised speeches in the evening. Without wanting to sound offensive, this situation is strikingly reminiscent of the times when socialism actually existed . ... What the country needs now is a new voice and renewed force. But what it needs most of all is a government with expert knowledge. It is the responsibility of the major parties, the Socialists and the conservative Young Democrats, to establish a credible government of experts which enjoys international esteem." (15/09/2008)

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A judgement recently pronounced by the European Court of Justice questions Denmark's long-standing restrictive immigration policy. Berlingske Tidende writes that Anders Fogh Rasmussen's right-liberal government is now faced not only with the difficult task of reestablishing the truce with its long-term partner on domestic policy, the anti-EU Danish People's Party. It must also "achieve a breakthrough on the other flank, in relation to the EU Commission. Here the government ... is trying to knit together a compromise. ... If the EU is unsuccessful on the one hand at guaranteeing free mobility of labour and on the other at preventing a flow of illegal immigrants from moving around in the Union unimpeded, it will have an enormous ... problem on its hands. ... For this reason the EU Commission must take the Danish government's objections extremely seriously. ... No one will benefit from the government's having to make an impossible decision between a strict immigration policy and the EU." (13/09/2008)

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Turin Sanomat deals in its leading article with the challenges faced by European social democracy: "For decades after World War II, social democracy was the leading political force in Europe. Now however we are seeing a decline in popular approval, internal divisions and leadership problems in Germany, the UK, Austria, Sweden, France and even little Finland. ... German social democracy is bedevilled with all manner of problems. ... Support for the SPD [German Social Democratic Party] has fallen from 34 percent after the 2005 elections to just over 20 percent, the worst result in more than six decades. .. The popularity of the British Labour Party has reached its lowest level in a quarter of a century. ... In Austria the Social Democrats won the parliamentary elections in 2006, but were unable to form a functioning government. ... In France the Socialists are having enormous difficulties consolidating their ranks after their defeat in the presidential elections. ... Equality, solidarity, public financing and the welfare state have always been ... the focus of European social democracy. Nevertheless the collapse of the Soviet Union ... and the turbulences of the early 1990s ... led social democratic movements into an ideological abyss. ... Tony Blair opened the so-called Third Way. ... However the challenges posed by globalisation are daunting in the extreme." (15/09/2008)

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Political Scientist Rein Taagepera reflects in Eesti Päevaleht on the policy Estonia should adopt towards Russia after the war in Georgia: "Many people in Estonia want the Western states to take swift and forceful action to curtail Russia's influence. In face of these expectations, everything that is in fact done seems like a symbol for the decline of the Western world. But it is not necessarily so. The Western states have other geographic and temporal dimensions. Estonia must accept this, instead of despairing that the West has no idea what Moscow is really like. ... Who knows Moscow better - those who were once under its influence, or those who avoided that fate? ... Estonia's experience shows that we too are threatened once the Russian tanks start to roll. The Western (and Northern) experience is that tanks come to a halt at their borders, provided you speak quietly and adopt a strong and menacing stance. ... Estonia needs a Russian-language television channel. Citizens whose mother tongue is Russian or some other language should be actively enlisted in the Estonian public service. ... Estonia must understand why and how the interests of Western Europe vary from their own. Once we know this, it will be simpler to settle on common ground." (13/09/2008)

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The last topic discussed by the EU finance ministers at their meeting in Nice was lowering the value-added tax on certain products. A number of states, including Germany, reject the proposal put forward by France. The daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung predicts that the discussion could soon force Germany to act. "The pressure on German Minister of Finance [Peer Steinbrück] to give in is growing. This is because of Germany's geographical position at the centre of Europe. Six of its nine neighbouring countries want to lower the sales tax. There is concern that if eating out on the other side of the border becomes cheaper, German consumers will start going to restaurants in the border regions. Cheaper electrical appliances at French supermarkets would also be an incentive for Germans to start shopping there instead. The only other countries that support Germany's veto are Austria and Denmark. Steinbrück will therefore have to start looking for new allies and trying to convince them that lowering tax rates won't necessarily boost consumption." (15/09/2008)

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Spain's prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has met with 130 Spanish ambassadors, calling on them to defend the strength of Spain's economy against critics, notwithstanding the current crisis. Commenting on the meeting, the business newspaper Expansion criticises the inactivity of the prime minister. "Zapatero seems disinclined to do very much himself to ease the ambassadors' task abroad, when one considers that he explicitly avoids making economic reforms that will rekindle the confidence of the major players, the businesses and investors. If he did, [the ambassadors] could then trumpet the achievements of a country that had taken the firm decision to overcome the crisis." (15/09/2008)

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According to a study by the private foundation Open Society Fund, 40 percent of eighth and ninth year pupils in Slovakia have a negative attitude towards Hungarian. 63 percent think members of the Hungarian minority should speak only Slovakian when on the street. The Hungarian minority accounts for ten percent of Slovakia's population. The liberal left-wing daily Pravda asks what the source of these "worrying views" among young people could be. "Is it owing to mistakes in our school education? Or are the politicians, who publicly insult the minority, to blame? The fact is that no one suffers because Hungarian is spoken on our streets. You only have to travel to Vienna to see how often you hear Turkish, Croat, and many other languages spoken on, for instance, the tram. Multi-culture lives from the diversity of languages." (15/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Márius Kopcsay

The Sunday cultural section of the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore describes the architecture Biennale that opened yesterday in Venice as a phenomenon that transcends art: "Anyone who expects answers or suggestions on the role of architecture from the Biennale curated by Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum, will find neither blueprints nor models, just a simulated merry meandering. Installations that conjure up spectres from the subconscious, heart palpitations that evoke the hammering of construction sites, hovering dolls that celebrate the singles culture. This is architecture as art. Or is it a plucky resuscitation of the principle of hope, bound to the grand tradition of Utopia? ... Regardless, the utopian image presented in the main section is more reminiscent of stereotypes than of experiments. They do not point to the future, but rehash old rites for new myths." (14/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Fulvio Irace

An anti-smoking campaign in Bucharest consists of huge posters featuring Romanian playmate Mihaela Radulescu posing almost naked. The daily newspaper Evenimentul Zilei comments: "The ministry of health at no point explained who evaluates the 800,000 euro campaign and how. Given that it has approved a campaign that targets 30 to 40 year-old non-smokers the ministry seems to have no interest whatsoever in achieving results, . ... Schoolchildren, the group that is least aware of the consequences of smoking, probably have no idea who playmate Radulescu is. If the campaign is aimed at smokers the message it sends has completely missed the target. For people who are addicted to nicotine, which is as addictive as any drug, the naked Radulescu is certainly not very helpful. The ministry of health could have spent the 800,000 euros on instructing Romania's general practitioners to offer their patients withdrawal treatment to help them deal with the psychosomatic consequences in the withdrawal period." (15/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Ioana Lupea