The daily Evenimentul Zilei comments on the complicated situation following the parliamentary elections in Moldova in which neither the four opposition parties nor the Communist Party have enough votes to elect the president: "The centre and centre-right parties [of the opposition] are young and have little experience. Yet they are the only hope for reform and progress. [Together] the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party, the Our Moldova Alliance and the Democratic Party seem to have garnered a few percent over half of the votes, which would make them the major winners of the recent elections. They could form a grand coalition in opposition to the Communist Party and form a government. The first three are definitely anti-communist and will certainly soon have a common platform for political action. The big unknown factor is the Democratic Party, which was previously insignificant. But now it has won ten percent more of the vote than in the previous election, thanks to its being taken over by Marian Lupu, a former member of the Communist Party. He could still topple the plans of the opposition if he allies himself with the communists and thus attains a majority in parliament." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » EU neighbourhood policy, » Elections, » Romania, » Republic of Moldova
All available articles from » Mircea Cărtărescu

According to the online edition of news magazine Wprost the elections in Moldova won't bring security to the country: "After three months of immobility there will still be no swift resolution to the political crisis in Moldova. The parliamentary elections which carried the hope of political stabilisation have brought no concrete answer to the question of whether a head of state has finally been successfully elected. Notwithstanding its ostensible victory the opposition failed to obtain a majority that would have enabled it to vote its own candidate to the post of president. This won't end well. We can't rule out that the communists won't exploit the situation and try to recruit someone from the opposition so that they can elect a politician from the red camp as president." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Republic of Moldova
All available articles from » Paweł Białobok

The conservative daily The Times sees the elections in the Republic of Moldova as the end of communism: "From 1917 until its discrediting in 1989, the part of the Left that drew inspiration from Lenin failed to win power anywhere by constitutional means. Where it exercised power, it produced only varying degrees of autocratic rule and economic failure. At its worst - under Stalin, [the former Albanian dictator] Enver Hoxha or [former Romanian president] Nicolae Ceausescu - it was as pure a system of totalitarianism as has ever been devised, combined with psychopathic gangsterism. ... The record of communism is so steeped in blood and penury that its historical appeal is difficult to fathom. But to generations of progressives it represented a romantic Promethean ideal. ... An ignoble cause thus travelled through the stages of squalor and corruption. And yesterday it became an anachronism. Three cheers for that." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Elections, » Romania, » Republic of Moldova

Although the communists have lost their ruling power in Moldova the political stalemate continues, writes the liberal daily NRC Handelsblad: "The fragility [of the planned coalition] is in itself not a good basis for overcoming the division between the lethargic and impoverished rural population (communist) and the ambitious citizens of [the capital] Chisinau (anti-communist). This leaves another question unanswered: will Moldova turn to its cousin Romania and thus indirectly to the West or will it turn to its old coloniser Russia and the East? The Russian government has promised [President Vladimir] Voronin a loan of 500 million dollars. … The EU had already held out the prospect of closer political cooperation. … Moldova the poorhouse remains not only internally divided but also a pawn in the international power game." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU neighbourhood policy, » Republic of Moldova

One day before the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Basque underground organisation Eta, terrorists belonging to the group have carried out a bomb attack in the resort of Palmanova on the island of Majorca. Two people were killed in this attack, the second in Spain in less than 48 hours. The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "It was to be expected that Eta would attack now. How else would a terrorist group celebrate its 50th anniversary? While at kiosks everywhere pictures of the barracks in Burgos destroyed by a 200-kilo bomb on Wednesday were still on display, Eta killed two policemen on Majorca on Thursday. For the general public used to the monstrous crimes and plans of Islamist terrorists, Eta's brand of terrorism may seem like a comparatively harmless anachronism in European history. But in Burgos Eta virtually wiped out entire families. Even in the Basque country there is hardly anyone left who believes the claims of the self-appointed 'freedom fighters' that the Spain of 2009 is as repressive as that of the Franco dictatorship in 1959. … It is a bitter truth that after 50 years the successes in the battle against Eta have still not been enough to prevent all its bloody deeds." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Weltanschauung, » Separatism, » France, » Spain

The new parliament in Bulgaria has begun its work by adopting a new regulation with a so-called lustration clause governing the appointment of members to parliamentary committees. The daily Sega complains that this clause is inconsistent: "It is scarcely a month since the new parliament was constituted and already it is getting ... entangled. Having voted not to allow any representatives of the former communist secret services to head committees, the assembly has taken the surprising decision to refuse to screen members of the committees controlling and supervising the work of the Interior Ministry and the secret services to find out whether they worked for the former state security service. ... And this despite the fact that Bulgaria for many years suffered precisely because of the links between the public administration, the secret services and the Interior Ministry." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Petar Petrov

Turkish fighter aircraft have repeatedly penetrated Greece's airspace in the past few days. Marilena Koppa, MEP for the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok), takes these incidents as an opportunity to criticise the Greek government's foreign policy: "Starting with the cronyism [Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis was the chief witness at the wedding of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's daughter] the government has now reached the point where it embarassedly observes Turkey's mobility in the Aegean region and remains silent vis-à-vis Turkey's clear intention of changing the status quo in the region. … The government has failed to make the legacy of Helsinki [the final act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975] work in its favour. On the contrary: by scorning important passages such as the option of appealing to The Hague it has demonstrated that it has failed to perceive [international] changes." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Greece, » Turkey
All available articles from » Marilena Koppa

In mid-June the Lithuanian parliament passed a law that forbids all mention of the subject of homosexuality in schools. The daily Postimees harshly attacks the law: "If the law comes into force in its present form or any other form Lithuania will slide to the other end of the intellectual spectrum where it has more in common with the Iran of [the spiritual leader] Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei than with a country like Sweden. It seems that a large proportion of Lithuania's political elite has no intention of supporting equality for heterosexuals and homosexuals even though their country belongs to the Council of Europe and the European Union - two organisations that combat discrimination based on sexual orientation. … The second problem with this new law is that it contradicts freedom of opinion and press freedom and thus violates the statutes of these organisations. And will Iceland's lesbian prime minister be banned from entering the country in future?" (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Minorities, » Gender equality, » Lithuania
All available articles from » Jeroen Bult

The debate on the lack of political enthusiasm for celebrating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy in 2011 continues. Ernesto Galli della Loggia argues in the liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera that the "forgotten Italy" is the fault of political leaders: "Nations are complex things. The basic material for constructing them is furnished mainly by history. But the people who bring them to life by giving them ideals and the form of a state are neither individuals nor the masses: they are the political classes. If the comatose state in which the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Italy's unity are currently languishing means anything, then it is that unity, which ultimately means Italy itself, all in all seems irrelevant to the politicians of this country, both the Right and the Left. ... The vast majority of Italians know [however] how things are: they know that in the last century and a half there has been no instrument that contributed as much to their freedom, their material progress and the emergence of their civic conscience as the unified state that is called Italy." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Remembrance culture, » Italy
All available articles from » Ernesto Galli della Loggia

Referring to the theatre festival in the French city of Avignon, where a whole series of political issues were discussed this year, Uldis Šmits asks in the daily Latvijas Avize what the role of intellectuals is in politics: "It would be wrong to assert that personalities like the French philosopher André Glucksmann or the well-known leading intellectual [and philosopher] Bernhard-Henri Lévy cannot achieve anything by taking up the cause of Georgian sovereignty. They can. And commemorations of the [murdered journalist] Anna Politkovskaya made by speakers in Avignon will not fall on deaf ears either. Yet the majority of European intellectuals still regard politics with great mistrust and rarely appear on the political stage, preferring to stay in their own sphere. But the powerful nevertheless still have to tolerate their proximity often enough and sometimes even have to reluctantly admit that the logic of economic relations is not the only one on which to run a state. ... This business logic is certaintly abhorrent if it remains without an intellectual counterweight. And this is what Latvia currently seems to be looking for." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Social movements, » Latvia, » Europe
All available articles from » Uldis Šmits

The Czech government's new strategy paper contains a long-term commitment to expand nuclear energy. The German-language weekly Prager Zeitung comments: "Nuclear-free Austria can get as upset as it likes [Austria has been complaining for years about the allegedly poor condition of Czech nuclear power stations, which it says pose a danger for Austria]: in the Czech Republic - and incidentally just as much in neighbouring Slovakia - nuclear energy is a prospect for the future and not a thing of the past. ... In the Czech Republic people are much more relaxed about nuclear power. With the exception of the Greens, whose return to parliament looks pretty unlikely, all the main parties favour an expansion of nuclear energy. ... The Czech population does not have much awareness of the risks of nuclear energy either. Whether this will change in the short term, given the economic crisis and global energy insecurity, is more than doubtful." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Health Policy, » Environmental Policy, » Energy, » Czech Republic, » Austria
All available articles from » Ivan Dramlitsch

After several breakdowns in Swedish and German nuclear power stations the reputation of the Swedish energy concern Vattenfall has taken a knocking. The daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet writes: "How Vattenfall is to be judged will ultimately depend, on the one hand, on how the company addresses the justified demands for safety being made by the general public, and on the other on whether more or less money for investments in new, environmentally-friendly forms of energy emerges from Europe's adventures with energy from coal. 'We will work systematically and with great openness to restore trust in the company. Alongside the focus on effectiveness and consolidation this is our highest priority,' writes the director of Vattenfall Lars G. Josefsson in his introduction to [the second-quarter of 2009] report [published on Thursday]. This is a clever priority. The recipe: ... more action: And no experiments with safety." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Energy, » Corporations, » Germany, » Sweden, » Europe

Eugène Ionesco, a pioneer of the Theatre of the Absurd, would have turned 100 this year. His daughter Marie-France Ionesco insists that he was French even though he was born in Romania and emigrated later. The weekly Revista 22 cites similar cases from the literary world: "Let's take the example of Samuel Beckett. … I won't start listing the places in Dublin where the writer is 'present', although … he preferred to live in Paris and write in French. I simply wish to remark on the calmness with which the Irish accept the integration of Beckett into French culture. … The speculation about the origins of Eugène Ionesco seems equally exaggerated: half Romanian, half French, but not too French but rather Jewish; and even that only partially as his mother was a Christian. … Is this the European way of looking at the work of an artist? … Culturally and as a human being Eugène Ionesco surely belongs first and foremost to the whole world." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Stage, » France, » Romania
All available articles from » Serenela Ghiteanu

The Italian drug approval agency AIFA on Thursday approved use of the abortion pill RU486 or "morning after pill", which has already been avaliable in other European countries for years. The left-liberal daily La Repubblica comments: "The Church has reacted vehemently. Monsignore Elio Sgreccia, professor emeritus at the Pontifical Academy for Life, has threatened to excommunicate those who prescribe or take the new pill. For many days the opponents of RU486 had been lobbying the five members of the supervisory board of the agency to prevent or at least delay [approval of the drug]. The president of the agency Guido Rasi had promised not to let himself be influenced by attacks by the Church. It would have been the first time that a drug had been blocked at the last moment by the supervisory board." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Health and Medicine, » Italy
All available articles from » Michele Bocci

The targeted way people use the Internet nowadays is a problem for online advertising, Jarno Hartikainen contends on the blog of the business paper Kauppalehti: "Even surfing with broadband becomes a torturous plod through a swamp when pop-ups, animations and countless banners paralyse the computer. Internet advertising flashes, jumps and screeches, yet little is known about its effectiveness. It's easy to count clicks, of course. The strength of the Internet for advertisers is that you can obtain precise data about users. … But counting clicks alone isn't enough any more. … The media sector now concentrating on the Internet is hedging its bets on financing itself through advertising because it can no longer demand payment for content. The volume of online advertising is growing, but for the time being the profit made with byte advertising remains considerably lower than that made with TV and newspaper advertising. The problem lies in the way the Net is used. People no longer just surf the Internet, they use it for specific purposes." (31/07/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Online media, » Finland, » Global