The Spanish daily El País considers that the announced resignation of the British House of Commons Speaker in the wake of the parliamentary expenses scandal will sorely damage the reputation of the entire institution: "It is improbable that the scandal over the expenses of British MPs at taxpayers' cost will have a decisive negative effect on voting patterns. What is sure, however, is that the reputation of Parliament, which is held up as a model internationally and which is above suspicion domestically, has suffered a severe blow. Labour MP Michael Martin's inept handling of the affair and his attempts to hush up the wrongdoings make his unusual resignation - the likes of which hasn't been seen in three hundred years - imperative. Nevertheless it will not put an end to this affair." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom

"So much for it all being much ado about nothing," the liberal daily Corriere del Ticino writes commenting on the resignation of the parliamentary Speaker in allusion to Shakespeare: "The game is up. Day after day of accusations in the daily newspapers, particularly the Daily Telegraph, have stoked a boundless fury among the English … at a political, profit-craving caste that is not up to its tasks. As often happens in such cases a scapegoat was required, and the first who happened to be on hand was Speaker Michael Martin, who must now suffer the consequences. … British citizens are less interested in internal parliamentary details. They want to get at the core: Martin, who after the Queen and the prime minister holds the third-most important office in the UK, is not a mediator for the monarch, as speakers once were, but primarily a mediator between the parliament and the people. He is the embodiment of an institutional bond of trust, and he was untrue to his task." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Gerardo Morina

The left-liberal daily La Repubblica sees the Speaker of the House of Commons as the scapegoat in the expenses scandal: "With his heavy Scottish accent and the loose black gown which makes him look like a judge or a prelate, Michael Martin … was a symbol of British democracy. He is the Speaker of Westminster, which is considered the mother of all parliaments. … Until yesterday Martin had rejected the calls for his resignation from all sides of Parliament and hoped that a rapid reform of the expenses system would calm the fury of Parliament, the media and the public. He thought it would be enough to ask the country for forgiveness. But this was not to be. The only one who could have saved him was a fellow Labour politician, Gordon Brown. But without hesitation the prime minister made him the scapegoat because he realised that the people needed to see someone burn at the stake. He preferred to watch Martin burn than step onto the scaffold himself." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Enrico Franceschini

The parliamentary expenses scandal involving British MPs comes down to the age-old interplay between power and money, writes the daily De Standaard: "If Michael Martin has announced his resignation it's not because any law has been violated, but because such practices no longer appear proper in a time of crisis marked both by growing democratisation and an increasing distance between citizens and their representatives. A political class must administer itself, and British politicians have clearly established very generous benchmarks for doing so. The size of their pay packet allows one to surmise that they were certainly not suffering from an inferiority complex when they made their exhorbitant expense claims. It is simply a quirk of human nature that anyone in a position to distribute money will not hesitate before pocketing some himself. And the fewer people there are looking on, the greater freedom they have, for example in determining the size of their own incomes. ... The fact of the matter is simply that politicians are only human. That, and not their commitment to politics, is why they sometimes derail so catastrophically." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Marc Reynebeau

After the announced resignation of Commons Speaker Michael Martin, the left-liberal daily The Guardian is starting an online campaign for constitutional reform: "The common thread that must run through any new constitution for Britain has to be the shift from parliamentary to popular sovereignty. Once you understand that in a true democracy the people are sovereign, the next moves become obvious. Of course the second chamber has to be elected: a sovereign people chooses who writes the laws that govern them. Of course there should be full transparency regarding MPs and their expenses: imagine employees refusing to show their boss how much of his money they had spent. Yet this is how our employees - the MPs - have behaved. ... Should there be a written constitution? Naturally. If you own a house, you have a copy of the deeds; if you buy a car, you get an owner's manual explaining how it works. And we are the owners." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Jonathan Freedland

"It's been a long time since a US-Israel summit ended with both sides unable to agree on practically anything," the liberal daily Sme comments assessing the meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "This wasn't just owing to the current political incompatibility of the US being ruled by doves and Israel by hawks. What for America is simply a fundamental foreign and security policy problem is a matter of survival for Israel. Obama is right to demand of Israel that it recognise an independent Palestinian state, stop the colonising of the Palestinian territories and act with restraint towards Iran. Israel must obviously take other possibilities into consideration: for instance that a Palestinian state may not, like the Gaza Strip, after they withdraw become a base for Islamist terrorists intent on destroying the Jewish state." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » U.S., » Middle East, » Israel
All available articles from » Peter Morvay

After waiting for years for a ruling on their asylum applications Iraqi refugees have sought refuge from authorities seeking to deport them in a church in Copenhagen. They cannot be allowed to remain in Denmark, the Christian daily Kristeligt Dagblad writes: "Despite the moral dilemma of the refugee problem it is acceptable to deport the 282 Iraqi refugees, not least because of the uncertain legal consequences should they be allowed to stay. It is untenable for a constitutional state to reward resistance to Danish laws. Other refugees would be encouraged to do all they can to delay their own cases. Taken as a whole, the encounter between official Denmark and the Iraqi refugees came to a bad end." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Migration, » Denmark
All available articles from » Erik Bjerager

With an eye to a current survey indicating that a majority of Belgian youths are uninterested in politics, the Belgian daily Le Soir reflects on the current mood of political disenchantment: "A resounding majority of youths openly admit they couldn't care less about politics. Half of them have a negative image of people who get involved in politics. This indifference results from a system that tends to smother the interest out of any and every intellectual debate ... and impoverish the institutions of democracy. ... It is no accident if in their voting intentions, young people tend to vote for [the green party] Ecolo. This young party has not had much experience in government and deals with questions they can identify with. Clearly, democratic education takes place first in the family, in school and in philosophy courses. There are so many vital ways to politicise this generation, which seems so separated from the politicians who represent them." (19/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Social movements, » Belgium
All available articles from » Hugues Dorzée

The daily La Voix du Luxembourg analyses the lacking presence of European party manifestos in the national election campaigns: "If things go on like this the plans of the political groups in the European Parliament will not be legible. This is a shame because how is a voter supposed to decide if he can't see a clear connection between the party manifestos presented by the national parties and the guidelines followed by the political groups in the European Parliament? With good reason voters will have doubts about candidates whose manifestos will become partially invalid because they have not been the subject of prior consultation with the respective parliamentary group. To counter the predicted low voter turnout now would be a good time to at least discuss this problem." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Elections, » Luxembourg, » Europe
All available articles from » Dominique Nauroy

The online portal La Voce writes that judging by the composition of the previous Italian contingent of MEPs, one could easily get the impression that the country's representatives to the European Parliament are all well past their prime: "Well-paid, idle, male, advanced in age, more loyal to their party than to their country. ... The personal data, political experience and behavioural patterns of our MEPs all seem to confirm the widespread opinion that the European elections are a sort of luxury retirement plan, a sort of elephants' graveyard. ... That may be due to the conception that the European Parliament plays a subordinate role to the Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers). This idea is obsolete, because Parliament's institutional role has grown over time. ... Shouldn't we use the EU Parliament as a practical test for young and promising politicians like other countries do, instead of a luxury nursing home?" (19/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Elections, » Italy, » Europe
All available articles from » Vicenzo Galasso

Political expert Cristian Pirvulescu writes in the daily Cotidianul about the social market economy model that established itself in Europe after the Second World War: "That was when the model of a social Europe was born: a reconciliation between the market economy mechanisms and the social requirements that were to ensure equal opportunities. And precisely this is why it was attacked by neoliberals of all the different parties. The economic crisis has changed the direction of Europe's politicians. The Christian Democrats have found their way back to a social market economy they abandoned amidst the neoliberal frenzy that had them in its grip until a year ago. The legacy of Ludwig Erhardt, Germany's minister of economics under [post-war chancellor Konrad] Adenauer, with its focus on the social market economy has regained its value. Only for the Romanian populists - above all the Conservatives, less so the Christian Democrats - does the neoliberal right-wing doctrine retain its force. … What's good for Europe is apparently not so good for Romania. Romanian politics is still obsessed with the winner who takes it all. And that winner wipes out every trace of democracy and provokes a cascade of inequalities." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Romania
All available articles from » Cristian Pîrvulescu

According to new statistics, without immigrants the Czech population will sink from its current 10.5 million to 8.8 million citizens by 2065. The liberal daily Mladá Fronta Dnes comments: "One can assume that the foreigners will mainly come from countries where their living standards would be worse than here. … This won't come as good news for the 'guardians of our ethnicity and racial purity': More people from the former Soviet Union, Asia, Africa, Muslims and so on. … We are going to have to get used to foreigners more than ever. In the past twenty years we have made progress in this respect. The formula according to which foreigners take away our jobs is only used as an election slogan by extremist parties nowadays. But the great fans of the 'Czech Republic for the Czechs' motto will no doubt have no problem letting taxpaying immigrants finance their pensions." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Demographics, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Karel Škrabal

Bulgaria ranks 38th overall in the annual World Competitiveness Yearbook, which rates countries for their competitiveness, higher than countries like Spain, Italy and Poland. The daily Sega is delighted: "Bulgaria has such a strong showing because life is cheaper here, the economy is growing relatively quickly and managers are content with relatively modest salaries. Of course, the major advantage is the low income tax. Bulgaria takes the top spot here with a rate of 10 percent for firms and individuals. ... We can also be proud that Bulgaria ranks among the top ten countries (out of 57) in a lot of other areas. For example in the number of mobile telephone users, the costs for Internet access, foreign investments and tourism revenues. ... And also - on a per capita basis - the number of doctors and hospitals." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Juliana Oncheva

In the business paper Világgazdaság economist Giles Merritt writes that so far the EU has paid little attention to the calls for help of Europe's industrial companies: "While the global financial crisis first of all escalated into an economic crisis and then an industrial crisis the call 'Where is Europe?' can be heard echoing all over the continent. So far the reaction from Brussels has been far from reassuring. … In view of growing fears that production cuts in industry could lead to the closure of important factories and thus cause job losses at thousands of smaller companies [the suppliers], national governments are on a collision course with the EU, even though they basically know that their best chance of saving the situation lies in joint European action. …The time has come for a new framework for industrial policy that would allow Brussels to make the most of its status as an 'honest broker' to control conflicting interests." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Economic Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Giles Merritt

Andrzej Kaniewski fumes in the Polish tabloid Fakt over the German weekly Der Spiegel. In this week's title story, the news magazine portrays different nationalities that aided and abetted the Holocaust. According to the magazine, some Poles also lent their support to Adolf Hitler and facilitated the mass murder of the Jews: "A scandalous article in the weekly magazine Der Spiegel. This is a brazen transferral of the guilt for six million murdered Jews onto the shoulders of the Poles. Such articles belong in the dustbin, not in a magazine read and quoted by millions of Germans throughout the world! ... These historical illiterates wash the Germans white as snow in the latest issue of their magazine, and attempt to give the Poles partial responsibility for the extermination of the Jews in World War II." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Remembrance culture, » Germany, » Poland
All available articles from » Andrzej Kaniewski

Anton, the five-year-old son of a Finnish father and his separated Russian wife, was taken by his mother to Russia without his father's knowledge. Now the father has abducted him right back to Finland with the help of a Finnish diplomat. Tuula Rantonen writes in the daily Karjalainen on the media hype over the case: "Rather than getting upset, Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb (National Coalition Party) shows his understanding as a 'father and Finnish citizen'. Doesn't Stubb know the saying 'no one asked what his father thinks'? Was it not wrong to hide the little boy on the back seat of the diplomatic car? Shouldn't fathers be able to find solutions whereby children are not deprived of daylight? ... In the drama over the child it's one person's word against another's. A media war is brewing on both sides of Finland's eastern border, and in the Internet as well. Talking about the child's well-being is simply hypocritical. A child is a child, not a bouncing ball and not a package that you can cart from door to door. A child can suffer, a ball can't." (19/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Finland, » Russia
All available articles from » Tuula Rantonen

A growing number of newspapers are cutting down on the number of correspondents they have abroad. This has a negative impact on quality, the foreign commentator for the daily De Volkskrant Paul Brill notes: "Several media, above all the dailies, have considerably reduced their correspondent networks. On the one hand owing to the costs and sometimes with the argument that thanks to the plentiful sources of information on the Internet one can write a decent piece … without leaving one's desk. Moreover there is a trend towards filling up the resulting gaps in correspondent networks with journalists who cost little, are young and have no family obligations. Who can just take off with their rucksacks, are paid per article and are easy to get rid of. I hasten to add that there are also talented people who do good work among them. But we're talking about a dangerous loss here. The best correspondents are those who have the time and space to put down roots in the society they write about." (20/05/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Print media, » Netherlands
All available articles from » Paul Brill