The campaign to ban minarets in Switzerland has fanned fears of Islamic fundamentalism, writes the daily Die Presse: "With their vote the people of Switzerland have done their country a huge disservice. The country's Muslims, who make up 4.5 percent of the population, many of whom come from the former Yugoslavia, are for the most part well-integrated and largely unproblematic. Religious peace has been dealt a severe - and needless - blow. Moreover, in such questions it becomes a religiously neutral state like Switzerland to behave neutrally. The degree to which the unexpected outcome of the referendum has unnerved the government can be read in the sentence - meant reassuringly - that the four existing minarets do not have to be taken down. The initiators' hard-nosed bet has paid off: Their campaign has succeeded in fanning fears of militant Islamic fundamentalism, which may be a problem in some regions of the world, but certainly not in Appenzell [where 71 percent voted in favour of the ban]." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Integration, » Minorities, » Switzerland
All available articles from » Helmar Dumbs

The minaret ban in Switzerland is pre-modern, the daily Diário de Notícias writes: "Switzerland has stressed its intolerance towards a religion that is growing in Western Europe as a result of the influx of immigrants. The building ban for minarets on mosques won't bring the Swiss the [national] security they used as an argument during the campaign. With this choice … Switzerland is rather providing Islamic extremists with new arguments. For centuries Christians were tolerated in Islam, while the opposite was unthinkable in Europe. Today … there is a mosque in Rome but it's unimaginable that a Christian would travel to Mecca. Switzerland has decided to go back several centuries in European history." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Integration, » Minorities, » Switzerland

The vote in favour of a ban on minarets could harm Switzerland's international image, the daily Le Temps fears: "The result of the referendum on a minaret ban was far from being a coincidental majority … . But the campaign has shown that the reality of Islam in Switzerland has nothing to do with the demonised image that has clung to this religion for years - the image of a religious fanaticism that manifests itself in such shocking extremes as terrorism, sharia law, the burka and the stoning of women. The Swiss Muslims don't deserve this unfair sanction, which was prompted by fear, fantasy and ignorance. We can safely bet that the same initiative would have produced a similar result in other European countries, but this doesn't make the damage to Switzerland's image any less spectacular." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Integration, » Weltanschauung, » Switzerland
All available articles from » François Moudoux

The Swiss ban on building minarets is reminiscent of the headscarf debate in France but with a few differences, the daily Postimees comments: "The dispute in Switzerland has been going on for some time, but in the end it was the right-wing Swiss People's Party that saw its opportunity and seized it: the economic crisis made it easier for it to explain to citizens why minarets are supposed to symbolise the power struggle with the rapidly growing Muslim immigrants community. In the dispute over headscarves in France other religious symbols like large crucifixes were also removed. In Switzerland on the other hand the minarets which already exist won't disappear. At any rate it's not yet clear whether the ban on new minarets in a multicultural country with around 400,000 Muslims will destroy the peace between religions or even lead to a new conflict between Muslims and the Western world." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Migration, » Integration, » Weltanschauung, » Switzerland
All available articles from » Jürgen Tamme

The EU Commission has created the new post of Commissioner for the Climate, which Connie Hedegaard, the current Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, will occupy. According to the conservative daily Berlingkse Tidende she is perfectly qualified for the job. "Connie Hedegaard can now concentrate one hundred percent on what qualifies her for the commissioner post: She is perhaps the politician with the strongest network, the most knowledge of details and the international status that is necessary to make inroads in the area of climate policy. It wouldn't have helped if she had to deal with all the big and small problems in the energy and environment sector too. But instead [President of EU Commission José Manuel] Barroso has signalled that climate policy will be given particular attention in the coming years and that Connie Hedegaard has been given a special mandate that transcends the limits of individual portfolios within the Commission." (29/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Environmental Policy, » Denmark, » Europe, » Global

More than 30 people died as a result of the terrorist attack on an express train in Russia on Friday evening. The weekly magazine Newsweek Polska writes that security in Russia has not increased since President Dmitry Medvedev took office: "No matter who blew up the train from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, the bombing shows that Medvedev's Russia is just as unstable now as it was at the beginning of Vladimir Putin's presidency. ... This is the first serious attack in the one and a half years of Dmitry Medvedev's term in office." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Domestic Policy, » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Poland, » Russia
All available articles from » Michał Kacewicz

After the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last Friday demanded that Iran halt the construction of a new uranium enrichment plant the Iranian government announced on the weekend plans to build ten more such plants. The left-liberal daily La Repubblica analyses the conflict: "An unbelievable political escalation: This is what the Iranian response to the IAEA's resolution means. The latter had accused Tehran of lacking cooperation on the nuclear issue on Friday. … The nuclear dispute has polarised Iran's political world: Following the IAEA's condemnation 226 out of 290 [Iranian] MPs signed a resolution demanding that the government reduce its cooperation with the IAEA. This hard line approach had the strong backing of parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, among others." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Europe, » U.S., » Iran
All available articles from » Vincenzo Nigro

Former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg was elected chairman of the new conservative party TOP 09 in Prague on the weekend. The party has attained 15 to 20 percent of voter support in current opinion polls. For the liberal daily Sme Schwarzenberg is a sort of "Czech Obama": "The situation leaves much to be desired, the people are dissatisfied and frustrated. They are hoping for a miracle, the arrival of a new Messiah who will solve their problems in the twinkling of an eye. ... Schwarzenberg has been right in just about everything he's said to politicians - and not only Czech ones - recently: they are cowardly and shirk their responsibilities, they see politics merely as a means of gaining power. ... Certainly, Schwarzenberg doesn't talk that way about people he himself worked under. But he belongs to the small group of respectable politicians who has never sullied his own hands." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Peter Morvay

Europe must rethink itself from the bottom up, says French philosopher Alain Badiou in an interview with the Sunday edition of Kathimerini. Only a grand idea can rouse Europe from its lethargy, Badiou believes: "I've never accepted the postmodern idea whereby the mentality of totalitarianism lurks behind every grand idea. For me that is simply a disguised form of ideological capitulation. I'd say that current mentalities also hide something far more widespread: the intellectual obsolescence and demoralisation of Europe. If you look closely you'll see that today's Europe is the most obsolete, weary region in the world. It is a continent where decline - and the acknowledgement of this decline - are omnipresent. ... Against this background the return of a grand idea bespeaks the wish for radical change ... that is necessary to abolish this deathly lassitude and revitalise European culture. Of course that does not mean a return to ideas ... having to do with the transformation of the state." (29/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Philosophy, » Europe
All available articles from » Petros Papakonstantinou

London's world of finance is in shock after the election of the new EU Commission on Friday, because former French agricultural minister Michel Barnier is now EU internal market commissioner, writes the business paper Les Echos: "This weekend our colleagues at the Financial Times wrote of a 'French victory'. ... Michel Barnier's nomination ... gives him control over the financial regulation decided in September at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. The City under French supervision? ... Until the very last moment [British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown did all he could to avoid this outcome. In vain. [French President] Nicolas Sarkozy, by contrast, who had fought for months on behalf of his fledgling, has emerged the victor. But this is not the end of the matter. ... The directorate general now under Barnier's leadership has been put in the hands of a Brit, whose spokesman is also British. Clearly London doesn't plan to throw in the towel as easily as that." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » France, » United Kingdom
All available articles from » Daniel Fortin

The Arab Emirate of Dubai is now sitting on a debt mountain of 70 billion dollars as a result of its gigantic construction projects. The daily Etelä-Suomen Sanomat takes stock of its repayment difficulties: "Dubai is built on sand, in the literal and the figurative sense. The emirate has taken on so many debts that the current recession has led it into an economic impasse. In the world of finance people are already saying that the difficulties faced by Dubai could lead to a new Lehman Brothers phenomenon, and that the ensuing credit risks could result in a shock in the financial landscape, causing it to collapse. ... In Iceland the state couldn't prevent its banks from crashing. In Dubai the state itself helped to create a huge credit bubble. Most investors don't have the slightest collateral, because the state was seen as such a reliable debtor that they didn't bother asking for guarantees." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Middle East

The current financial and economic crisis casts doubts on the role of savings banks, the business paper Expansión writes: "The economic crisis won't fail to have consequences for the Spanish financial system. Among those consequences - it seems - we will witness a significant reduction in the number of savings banks. The Banco de España [Spain's central bank] estimates that a third of these entities will either have to merge or disappear. The government is trying to facilitate the process with a generous bailout plan. The question is: will this be enough? The role of the savings banks in the financial system is unclear. Their shift of emphasis towards [other] banking activities has had the effect of blurring their profile." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Banks, » Spain
All available articles from » José Carlos Laguna de Paz

Two people died last Thursday when an old factory building collapsed in Sofia. Empty industrial buildings should be used for cultural purposes rather that speculative enterprises, the daily Dnevnik writes: "The experiences of many foreign cities show that old industrial buildings can be transformed into attractive parts of city landscapes if they are used to house galleries, cultural spaces or leisure centres. In Bulgaria, however, there are too many counter-examples where the administration and owners have apparently connived to allow culturally and historically important buildings to deteriorate to the point where they collapse to free up the plot of land they stand on. And in keeping with the old tradition only now have they started looking for the culprits." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Architecture / Cities, » Cultural Policy, » Bulgaria

The trial of John Demjanjuk, one of the last major Nazi trials, starts today in Munich. The 89-year-old is accused of assisting in the murder of 27,900 Jews. The victims and their relatives have a right to see justice done, writes the tabloid De Telegraaf: "Despite his age it is right that Demjanjuk is having to answer for his crimes. Crimes against humanity don't fall under the statute of limitations. Demjanjuk was able to live long and freely in the US, amongst his family. The victims of Sobibór were driven straight into the gas chambers on their arrival at the camp. The terrible picture of this hell will be revived in the trial. And that is also important, particularly now when the West is having to deal with a regime in Iran that denies the Holocaust and wants to wipe Israel from the map." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » History, » Germany, » Netherlands, » Iran, » Israel

Last week Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer working for embattled investment fund Hermitage Capital, died in a Russian jail. He is reported to have suffered from a pancreatic ailment that was left untreated in prison. President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an investigation into the case. The liberal daily Financial Times sees urgent call for action on prison conditions: "Given the repeated pledges he has made to enforce the rule of law, Mr Medvedev should seize on the Magnitsky case to put his words into action. He should start by reviewing conditions in prisons, where deaths are all too common, and overhauling the interior ministry to make its officials accountable before the courts. Unfortunately, he will face overwhelming opposition. The authoritarian state created by Vladimir Putin, the prime minister and former president, has allowed officials to see themselves as above the law. ... But Mr Medvedev must do what he can." (30/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Russia