Columnist Jackie Ashley discusses in The Guardian the options open to the growing anti-Gordon Brown faction in the Labour Party: "Already a few things have moved into focus in the clear air of Manchester. One: this conference will not much matter. There will be a bubble of unity. It will last as long as a bubble does. Two: the movement to drive Gordon Brown out has moved from the fringes of the backbenches and the lower ministerial ranks to the cabinet. Three: even so, Brown's greatest power is still the division among his enemies. ... None of this will help unless he can pacify his cabinet. ... Brown needs to look his colleagues in the eye and bind them back in, with a promise of no more vicious briefings and a resolution to be a team leader. I do not believe he will do this. At some level, I don't think he can. So, in the end, I think there will be some kind of attempted putsch. It will come after the conference, with its false display of unity, has finished." (22/09/2008)

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The Süddeutsche Zeitung analyses the leadership crisis in the Labour Party: "Once more the party will rally around Brown, even if it has them gritting their teeth. That has less to do with Brown's person than with circumstances: the only thing his opponents in the party can agree to is that he should go. Above and beyond that they are at odds. Some want to topple him now, while others prefer to put it off until later. ... And total confusion reigns over who should succeed him. There is no shortage of contenders, but they all lack a broad base of support and they would all fare worse than Brown in an election, with one exception: ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair. ... Brown's camarilla has long pursued stalling tactics: the prime minister should always be given another  chance. But that would leave them timidly trailing behind come June 2010, when elections can no longer be postponed. Then Labour - based on their current situation and the cruelty of the majority voting system - would be threatened with political oblivion. ... This scenario would be welcomed by one British politician: Tory leader David Cameron. He prefers a washed-out Brown to a fresh successor any day." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Wolfgang Koydl

Trouw newspaper situates the crisis in the Labour party in the context of the larger crisis of Western European social democracy: "Social democracy is having a hard time in Western Europe. In the Netherlands polls are a source of headaches for the [social democratic] PvdA, in Germany the SPD has opted for a change of leadership to stop its fall, and in France the Socialists have still not got over their defeat at the hands of Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential elections. Everywhere social democrats are struggling with the question of to deal with immigration, and whether they should slow down or step up liberalisation and the rationalisation of the welfare state. That certainly also holds for the UK. ... In view of the structural problems facing the leftist parties, the Labour Party would do better to spend less time worrying about whether it needs a new leader." (22/09/2008)

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The Italian daily Corriere della Sera comments on the results of a survey published yesterday in the liberal social-democratic weekly The Observer according to which if general elections were held now only 160 of Labour's current 346 MPs would be left in parliament. "David Cameron's Conservatives would win a landslide victory and return to Westminster with 398 MPs, a flock the likes of which only Margaret Thatcher was able to rally around her at the peak of her success. ... Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who many would like to see as leader of the [Labour] party, would be the sole survivor of the purge. While its party conference takes place a truce has been called to the party's internal power struggle to avoid conveying the image of division and complotting to the party's grass roots. But with poll results like these Gordon Brown can hardly expect his MPs, facing the prospect of extinction, to wait for the final date for electing the party leader in spring 2010. ... After eleven years of government the citizens are disappointed with the performance of the Labour Party." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Guido Santevecchi

Goran Novkovič explains in the online edition of Žurnal24 why Slovenia's right-wing Prime Minister Janez Janša lost the parliamentary elections just as his predecessor Anton Rop of the left-leaning LDS party did four years ago: "Janez Janša, who successfully led Slovenia's EU Council presidency, lost yesterday's elections. In 2004 more or less the same happened to Anton Rop of the LDS, who had guided Slovenia into the EU. Why have these two politicians suffered the same fate? ... With the introduction of the euro and the EU presidency Slovenia has reached the peak at an international level. Voters turned their attention to domestic affairs. ... The people became aware of the contradictions during Janša's term in office. On the one hand there was the removal of bureaucratic hurdles while on the other there were shady dealings with state-owned companies, while the government ruled the country with an iron hand. ... Janša frightened off many of the moderate voters and attracted the voters of other conservative parties. For its part the Left won back many of the moderate voters that Janša had lured away from the LDS in 2004." (22/09/2008)

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In recent days a delegation of European socialists has been examining the strained relations between Slovakia and Hungaria. "There were good reasons for them to do so", writes the left-liberal Slovakian daily Pravda, because although socialists rule on both sides of the Danube they cannot reach agreement, while nationalistic ideas are increasingly being voiced. The delegation concluded that bilateral relations are good, but their findings "were formulated very diplomatically, as the Eurosocialists were unable to put things more concretely. It was only two years ago that they reproached Prime Minister Fico for working with his [nationalistic] coalition partner. But soon thereafter they eased their criticism. From a legal or political point of view it may well be that the government did nothing to threaten the [Hungarian] minority. But its radical vocabulary had a hand in spreading a spirit of intolerance. Now the European socialists have given a green light to this trend. ... And this notwithstanding the fact that EU structures are there to settle contentions between members." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Márius Kopcsay

Poland's conservative-liberal ruling coalition plans to cut funding for the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), which is charged with the prosecution of Communist and Nazi crimes committed in Poland. In his opinion piece for the liberal daily Polska television, journalist Thomasz Lis calls for the IPN to be scrapped for persecuting the former hero of the revolution and Polish President Lech Wałęsa. "Why should I sponsor a freedom of research that results in black being called white and vice versa. ... I don't give a damn about a freedom of expression that allows a hero of the free trade union [Solidarność] to be branded a pest who hindered rather than helped [the country]. ... Freedom is worth great sacrifices. But people who spit on the best of the best are not worth much. How can one admire a nation that slings mud at people who would be treated with respect in any other country? ... Have we earned respect when we cannot even respect ourselves? The 'Institute of National Persecution' should cease to exist. The budgetary cuts are too mild a punishment." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Tomasz Lis

A group of political activists in Denmark printed and sold T-shirts to collect money for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Colombian guerilla group FARC. Last week they were sentenced for aiding and abetting terrorist activities. The daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten welcomes the ruling in the so-called "T-shirt case". Nine months previously a local court had acquitted the six activists, the paper writes, on the grounds that "FARC and the PFLP were not terrorist groups of a calibre that would justify the act of providing them with financial support to be automatically defined as supporting terrorism. This line of argument is contrived since a criminal organisation naturally doesn't become legally and politically correct simply because it concerns itself with some humanitarian and thus reputable project. ... When the so-called terrorist regulations where laid down in the penal code there was some concern that the legal security of the population at large could suffer from a politically motivated over eagerness to condemn terrorists and their supporters. This fear has been assuaged for now, and this is much to the credit of Denmark's judicial system. The citizens' legal security must always be the top priority. But it must nonetheless be stressed that naivety and idolisation ... are not extenuating circumstances." (22/09/2008)

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Reflecting on a series of racially motivated attacks against immigrants in Italy, the daily La Repubblica notes a change in attitude among the country's immigrants. "The passiveness has come to an end. The immigrants are no longer willing to suffer the violence in silence. ... In Italy the trouble spots are not confined to the suburbs as in France, but are spread all over the country. Both socially and geographically, Italy is one big banlieue. But the most recent incidents show that - despite the inexcusable attempts [of politicians] to justify the crimes - the present climate is not entirely dominated by bitter and unrelenting [racial] conflict. Among second-generation immigrants there is a growing conviction that Italy too needs an SOS racism organisation based on the French model which works to eliminate discrimination; a comprehensive organisation tasked with facilitating and guaranteeing integration. This is a solution that requires political allies and is therefore problematic in today's Italy, where emphasising the differences of immigrants rather than espousing their integration is a sure way of achieving election victories." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Renzo Guolo

The recognition of Kosovo in South-eastern Europe is coming along slowly, writes Michael Martens in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "Neither Greece, Romania, Macedonia, Montenegro nor Bosnia and Herzegovina have recognised the independence of Kosovo until now. For Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary recognition was so weighty a step that they only dared take it jointly, to spread the brunt of Serbia's wrath onto as many shoulders as possible. This is not surprising. Because while Serbian sanctions do not strike fear into people's hearts in Central America, Western Africa or Polynesia, in this region things are different. ... That is why the integration of Kosovo into the community of states has until now been slowest before its very own doorstep, where it is most needed for economic reasons. ... Romania has shied away from recognising Kosovo not only for fear that the Hungarian minority in its own country could follow the example of the Kosovo Albanians. Romania also acts as spokesman for the neighbouring republic of Moldova, and in the wake of the events in Georgia respect for Moldova has also played a key role in Bucharest's failure to act. No one wants to give Moscow a pretense to 'solve' the conflict in Transnistria, a secessionist Moldovan territory supported by Moscow, along neo-Soviet lines. Similar considerations also apply for Greece vis-à-vis Cyprus. ... And it now seems entirely impossible that the tri-ethnic state of Bosnia and Herzegovina will recognise Kosovo. There the Dayton peace agreement of 1995, which has resulted in the more or less permanent partition of the country, has allowed the Bosnian Serbs to prevent recognition." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Michael Martens

The rally staged by the right-wing extremist Pro Köln party in Cologne's city centre prompts Dejan Kovač to analyse the situation of Muslims in Europe. The building of mosques has repeatedly caused problems: "There are around 6,000 mosques across Europe. ... And a few hundred new ones ... are no problem in a secular society. But it becomes a problem as soon as a religious war breaks out, and this is basically what is happening in Europe. The call for Christian values to be enshrined in the European constitution and later in the Lisbon treaty as the European Union's fundamental document was an unambiguous call for a crusade against heretics, non-believers and adherents of other religions. The state leaders of those countries in which there is separation of church and state not only responded badly to this summons, they have adopted it as their own." (22/09/2008)

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One week after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers investment bank, Pascal Riché comments in the French online magazine Rue 89 that there is also a positive side to the international financial crisis. "First off, what we saw last week was certainly an improvement over the previous situation: a banking system that swept its losses under the carpet, that ... denied its mistakes, kept its skeletons hidden away in closets and lied to the state. If this system had been maintained, the billions in losses incurred by the banks would have been paid by the taxpayer. ... It was better to let the bubble burst. ... The banks and their shareholders - everyone who speculated in irresponsible ways - must absorb these losses, not the taxpayer. ... This crisis may give way to a more solid economy, one less dependent on the excesses of the financial system. The ball is now in the politicians' court. They must create a simpler, more transparent regulatory system in the banking sector, and see to it that this system cannot be circumnavigated with accounting tricks. ... If the crazy world of finance can be controlled, if the advantages of political action can once more be shown, that is not bad news." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Pascal Riché

The emigration of so many of its doctors is increasingly becoming a problem for Estonia: with their higher salaries the Nordic states are luring the doctors away, the Estonian daily Eesti Päevaleht writes. It adds that in Finland alone around 360 doctors, 30 dentists and 65 nurses from Estonia were working in 2007. "Now the community of Gävleborg in Sweden has started a campaign to recruit between 20 and 30 doctors in the Baltic states. ... Estonians' interest in working at Swedish hospitals has grown from year to year. ... Although doctors' salaries have risen substantially in the past few years, they still earn considerably more in Sweden than here. And the more doctors move from Estonia to Sweden, the more attractive Sweden becomes for Estonian doctors because ... they [can already] be received into an Estonian community. ... Sweden is currently looking for emergency doctors, psychiatrists and surgeons in the Baltic states. Candidates do not even need good command of the Swedish language because there are special language courses on offer for them in Sweden." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Kadri Ibrus

Many Dutch schools close to allow schoolchildren to celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, the festivity marking the end of Ramadan. The tabloid De Telegraaf warns that this amounts to introducing an Islamic national holiday through the back door. "One thing is certain: Eid ul-Fitr does not feature among our country's traditional holidays. ... Here holidays are determined by our culture, and no school may act otherwise, regardless of how many Muslim students it has. But if schools do start shaking away at our public holidays, immediate action must be taken. Playing around with our culture, for example by putting Eid ul-Fitr on equal footing with Christmas, leads only to greater polarisation in society and is one more obstacle on the road to integration." (22/09/2008)

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Today marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Bulgaria's independence [from the Ottoman Empire]. The weekly newspaper Kapital writes that much of the money slated for the ostentatious ceremonies and events may well flow into election campaigns: "Although Independence Day is on September 22, the celebrations will only end on May 6 [Army Day in Bulgaria] next year, with a parade costing 200,000 euros. So the celebrations will last a whole nine months and cost over 5 million euros. ... The whole lavish extravaganza will end with a canonade and fireworks just before the official start of the election campaigns for the European and the Bulgarian parliaments. It is only to be expected that those in office will have cut costs here and there. A whole series of celebrations in the European Parliament and in the European Commission will coincide with the second year of Bulgaria's membership in the EU. It remains to be seen what is really going to be celebrated - frozen EU accession programme funds or possible sanctions for the rubbish problem and the emergency telephone number 112." (22/09/2008)

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All available articles from » Luba Jordanova