The liberal daily La Vanguardia calls on tourists on the holiday island of Majorca to continue their holidays there: "Spanish and foreign tourists should spend their holidays on Majorca as if nothing had happened. This is the best response to the four explosives Eta let off on Sunday in Palma - ten days after it … killed two Guardia Civil policemen [on the same island] with a car bomb. The terrorists should not be allowed to achieve their goal of disrupting public life and intimidating the population. This is the message the [Spanish] royal family wanted to convey to the whole world in continuing its holiday on the island as normal." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Social movements, » Separatism, » Spain

"The best way for the population to react to terrorism is to ignore it", writes the liberal business paper Financial Times Deutschland. "That goes just as much for a national terrorist group with narrowly defined interests like the Spanish Eta as for a fundamentalist network with religious and revolutionary pretensions like al-Qaida. What all terrorist organisations have in common is that the psychological impact of their actions is more far-reaching than the real impact. ... Of course states must react to terrorist acts of violence and do their best to prevent subsequent attacks. Anything else would be grossly negligent. But they do well to concentrate on criminal investigations and, like the Spanish king, view  terrorists as what they are: common criminals." (11/08/2009)

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"At a time when all Europe lives in fear of Islamist violence Eta is like an open-air museum of European terrorism – the last of its kind," the conservative daily Lidové Noviny comments. "The [Spanish] government of [Prime Minister] José [Luis Rodríguez] Zapatero is also in a way the last of its kind. Right after it took power five years ago it relied on a 'peace dialogue with Eta'. Without stipulating any conditions it waited for the results. Zapatero simply isn't [former British prime minister] Tony Blair, who was able to champion the cause of IRA disarmament. The Spanish prime minister withdrew his soldiers from Iraq after terrorists attacked suburban trains in Madrid in 2004. A couple of hours after he praised the dialogue with terrorists in 2006 as his government's greatest success Eta carried out an attack on Madrid airport. And now it is spreading the terror to the tourist stronghold on the Balearics." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Domestic Policy, » United Kingdom, » Spain
All available articles from » Zbyněk Petráček

The left-liberal daily Népszabadság writes that the Basque terrorist organisation Eta will never achieve its goal of an independent Basque state: "Eta - or rather what remains of it - comes across as a total anachronism. It is taking the same path as the Northern Irish IRA once did - the IRA went on exploding bombs until it lost all vestiges of political support. Today only one percent of Basques believe an independent Basque state can be achieved through violence. … We can safely describe Eta as the last of the Mohicans of European terrorism. … Eta has zero chance of achieving its goal. Why? Because the state unity of the country is enshrined in the Spanish constitution. Consequently there will never be a Spanish government with whom the Basques can negotiate their independence." (11/08/2009)

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All available articles from » Endre Aczél

Around 20 miners were killed in a mining accident in Slovakia on Monday. The liberal daily Sme writes: "Mining is pretty much as dangerous in 2009 as it was in 1791, when the verses of the oldest Slovakian miners' song were penned. In many ways it's even more difficult for today's miners to get up for work than it was in past centuries. The mining profession has lost its privileges, and its prestige has waned. The government of [ex-prime minister Mikuláš] Dzurinda didn't waste a single word on them in its programme, and the current government gives mining just a single sentence, stating that it is working towards closing down the mining industry. ... But as long as it exists, only safe mines should remain open, so that everyone who goes down comes back up in one piece." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Economic Policy, » Slovakia
All available articles from » Lukáš Fila

After 35 years the corpses of five Greek Cypriot soldiers considered missing since the Turkish military intervention of 1974 have been exhumed and identified. The daily Ta Nea calls on Ankara to open its military files to make information on other missing persons accessible to the public: "Turkey is stubbornly refusing to obey the UN's decisions and disclose information about the fate of these people. Because evidently it knows full well how they died, and wants to avoid being accused of war crimes. The new data that has now been published confirms what everyone feared: the Turks disregarded all existing conventions and violated the principles of humanity by carrying out mass executions. Even today - 35 years later - information [on those missing] is divulged only bit by bit. Turkey is duty-bound to open all the files so that we can learn the truth about the fate of every single victim." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Domestic Policy, » History, » Cyprus, » Turkey

The election of the Palestinian Fatah party's two main decision-making bodies was postponed at its conference on Monday. According to the conservative daily Le Figaro the Palestinians' main problem lies in their propensity for violence: "The Palestinian Fatah has not yet officially renounced the armed fight against Israel. At a conference in Bethlehem where they convened under their coat of arms featuring two crossed Kalashnikov rifles the old Fedayeen [underground fighters] opposed any change to this fundamental party principle. The successor of [Yasser] Arafat, [Palestinian leader] Mahmoud Abbas, however resolutely opposes violence. Since he took power in 2004 he has dedicated his efforts to seeking a compromise, thus damaging his popularity. … But this is an exception. Apart from a few isolated cases it is a particularity of the Palestinian cause not to adopt a course of passive, non-violent resistance. For Fatah, as for the Hamas Islamists, armed conflict is the only way to articulate the demands of the Palestinians. But looking at the results it is obvious that this method has failed." (10/08/2009)

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All available articles from » Adrien Jaulmes

The battle against the drug trade has become the US government's top priority in Afghanistan, the business daily Il Sole 24 Ore writes, but adds that the outcome remains uncertain: "The hunt for the drug bosses is part of a comprehensive strategy aimed at stabilising the country. But the most dangerous enemy in this battle is time: ten days ahead of the [presidential] elections the Taliban control almost 50 percent of the agricultural areas. … With the revenues from the drug business the Taliban buy weapons and ammunition. The rebellious Helmand province which lies on the border with Pakistan and is a Taliban stronghold covers almost 80 percent of the world's opium production. It won't be easy [to stop this]: 2.5 million people are involved in the business, many of them poor farmers. … The US wants to propose an alternative crop or economic incentives to encourage the people to give up poppy-growing. But all earlier attempts have failed." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » U.S., » Afghanistan
All available articles from » Roberto Bongiorni

Year after year the international NGO Transparency International rates Sweden as one of the least corrupt countries in the world. Yet Sweden is not entirely free of corruption, the daily Sydsvenske Dagbladet writes, commenting on a recently published survey: "Tolerance regarding irregularities is low when it comes to clear infringements but there is a grey zone which needs more attention. A survey published by the Lund and Växjö universities reminds us of this. … One in three [respondents in the municipalities] would find it acceptable that a building contractor invite a politician and leading officials to a whole-day seminar including meals. … One in four finds it acceptable to give local company contracts even if the same product could be bought more cheaply and of better quality from the competition. … So even in one of the least corrupt countries people need to be better informed. The law applies there too, even in the municipalities." (11/08/2009)

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In his most recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate ('Love in Truth'), Pope Benedict XVI writes that progressive social economic policy is inseparable from a conservative ethic. Sociologist Antoine Jacobs writes in the left-liberal daily De Volkskrant that with this doctrine the Catholic Church adopts a unique position in the political spectrum: "The result is that the Roman Catholic Church can be attacked from all sides depending on the topic ... and isn't supported by a single political movement in the entire spectrum of its views. In leftist circles people often point to the contradictory character of Catholic social doctrine. With its rejection of the pill and condoms, the Catholic Church worsens the population problem, sickness and poverty, they argue. In right-wing circles the Catholic vision of the economy, peace and justice tends to be pushed aside as naive. Populists reject the Catholic idea of migration. Nevertheless, as liberalism, socialism and Christian democratic conservatism are increasingly going through crises of identity, it will be interesting to see if the controversial combination of left and right ... in the Catholic social vision can offer the world new perspectives." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Weltanschauung, » Global
All available articles from » Antoine Jacobs

In the conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Wolfgang Günter Lerch looks back on the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its relations with the West: "'Interference from abroad, a conspiracy by foreign powers' is the cheap explanation Iranian politicians give for their own failures whenever there are difficulties. … The regime needs this imaginary foe to justify itself. It is also an expression of a fear of isolation that has grown over the centuries and among other things is a result of the Shi'ites minority position within Islam. The EU should not take too much notice of this and crank up the pressure. Iran has long complained that it is not treated with respect or put on 'an equal footing'. But the West, and above all the Europeans, has tried many different approaches in the course of thirty years without ever getting through, and Europe too has its dignity. Considering the present situation a course of constant 'openness' won't get it any further." (11/08/2009)

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All available articles from » Wolfgang Günter Lerch

In the wake of the budget audit by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Romania plans to lay off 150,000 civil servants in exchange for a loan package amounting to billions of euros. The daily Adevârul writes: "This demand doesn't come from the government [of Prime Minister Emil] Boc; it is the sole condition of the IMF for continued payment of the loan. ... Today we find ourselves in a unique crisis situation. ... We are currently in the midst of the blackest period since 1997. We're out of money, and the Boc government must borrow from banks to pay pensions. Every segment of our non-reformed society hangs like an invalid on the drip of the foundering executive. The areas of education, health and justice have become major money guzzlers without any prospect either of supporting themselves or of reform. Everything that has happened in Romania in the last 20 years has been the result of prompting and pressure from external organisations, especially the EU. Our political class has failed at everything it's attempted." (11/08/2009)

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All available articles from » Emilian Isaila

More and more people are becoming implicated in the Fortis Bank affair which forced the government in Belgium to step down last year. On Monday it was revealed that judges were also involved in the attempt to influence the proceedings against the bank on the government's behalf. This has damaged the neutrality of the constitutional state, the daily De Morgen concludes: "What can citizens believe in when even the highest judges in the country play fast and loose with the most elementary legal principles and were in cahoots with one of the parties involved in the proceedings? This undermining of the constitutional state … cannot go unpunished and certainly should not be concealed under the cloak of judicial independence. This is the only way for the judicial system to prove that it can uncover and punish its own internal errors and that the judiciary is not a caste free to do anything it pleases, even undermine the principle underlying its existence." (11/08/2009)

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All available articles from » Yves Desmet

A couple paid a 30-year-old Polish woman from the central Polish city of Łódz 30,000 zloty (7,300 euros) to act as a surrogate mother. She was artificially inseminated and bore the couple a son. Now the surrogate mother has gone to court to try and get her child back. The left-liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza criticises the whole business: "Justice Minister Andrzej Czuma even said on the TV channel TVN24 that the whole affair reminds him of human trafficking. And although it is not human trafficking in the legal sense it can be treated as such from a moral point of view. All the more because the entire civilised world regards it as morally reprehensible and hardly legally justifiable to sell organs for transplants (or buy them). The argument that everyone has the right to do what he wants (with his kidneys for example) is unacceptable in our civilisation. You can only donate your own organs, tissue (for example bone marrow) or reproductive cells for free and without any [financial] interests coming into play." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Health and Medicine, » Poland
All available articles from » Ewa Siedlecka

Parallel to investigations into whether Ahmed Doğan, head of the party representing Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish population (DPS), gravely abused his office, the Bulgarian parliament is now considering stopping news broadcasts in Turkish. The daily Sega comments: "Stopping news broadcasts in Turkish at the present time implies a clear connection between criminality and Turkish origin. The neo-Nazis have long maintained a similar connection regarding criminality and the Roma. But there is no connection whatsoever between the Turkish language and the alleged crimes of the DPS elite. ... Confusing these two issues means criminalising an entire minority - and the consequences of that would have to be paid by every last one of us." (11/08/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Audiovisual Media, » Media policy, » Bulgaria
All available articles from » Ivailo Dichev