The Swiss vote against the construction of new minarets is a "triumph of fear", but Switzerland is not an absolute exception in Europe, the left-liberal daily De Volkskrant writes: "It would be wrong to play down the Swiss referendum as the deviant vote of an electorate that has already proved to be oversensitive about potential violations of its cultural unity in the past. Despite its tradition of setting itself apart politically, Switzerland is only to a certain point a special case. One can't say for sure that a similar referendum in another European country wouldn't have stood a chance. There are other countries where a majority of the population is having great trouble accepting the rapid rise and the conspicuous presence of another religion which stands in conflict with some forms of expression of the secular, individualistic lifestyle that has developed in the West. In this context the minaret functions as a symbol for everything that is wrong with Islam in the eyes of many Europeans." (01/12/2009)

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

The Swiss ban on minarets is not really about militant Islamists as the right-wing parties claim, but about religious freedom and tolerance, the daily Politiken writes: "With the constitutional ban on minarets in Switzerland and the immediate declarations of support for similar measures in the Netherlands and Denmark made by [Dutch right-wing populist] Geert Wilders and [the leader of the right-wing populist Danish People's Party] Pia Kjærsgaard, the final boundary has been crossed. These political forces want to abolish religious freedom in Europe. They want to break with a value that is central to Europe's Enlightenment tradition. Whether we like it or not we are confronted with a political trend that is totalitarian in its consequences and undermines the free society it allegedly wants to protect against 'dangerous' minorities at its core. … Europe is becoming the home of intolerance and religious persecution." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Minorities, » Denmark, » Switzerland, » Europe

Referendums are problematic because they involve voting on highly complex questions demanding expert knowledge, writes the daily Upsala Nya Tidning with an eye to the Swiss ban on minarets: "Certainly, there are questions that can be decided by referendum. But the problem with direct democracy in the form of binding referendums is the complexity of the questions, which often demand detailed expert knowledge on the constitution and international conventions. It's for a good reason that we elect our representatives through democratic votes. ... In Sweden we can count ourselves lucky that we have no binding referendums that can amend the constitution." (01/12/2009)

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

In the wake of the Swiss vote against the construction of new minarets the daily Le Temps questions the validity of referendums as an instrument of direct democracy: "How is it that the great virtue of Swiss democracy - political rule through frequent plebiscites - has been abused by the base desires of solitary individuals? It became clear in Switzerland last Sunday that intelligent people have lost control and demagogues have won the day. Direct democracy has always been meant as a civic counterbalance to the official power transferred to the country's representatives and the state. But it was never meant to become a dustbin for emotions where the first person with a little money, cunning and a knack for persuasion can rouse the people to place fetters on themselves." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Elections, » Switzerland, » Europe
All available articles from » Joëlle Kuntz

The Lisbon Treaty which comes into effect today is an opportunity for Europe, the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna writes: "The strategists are divided between two camps when it comes to evaluating Europe. The one camp predicts it will become obsolete, while the other says it will become a new power. If you listen to the tone of the European debate it looks like the former will gain the upper hand. But if we look at the facts we can be more optimistic. We need to get the European machinery going so that it can develop its full force. Now that the Lisbon Treaty has come into effect this is the main task for the leaders of the European continent." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » EU Constitution, » Poland
All available articles from » Andrzej Talaga

Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose critical stance on Islam has made him a controversial figure, was invited to give a talk in the Prague Senate (the upper chamber of the Czech parliament), but his invitation has now been withdrawn. The conservative daily Lidové Noviny sees this as an expression of intolerance: "Up to now the Czech Republic has been seen as a country where political correctness didn't limit the freedom of speech. The Senate's withdrawal of its invitation to Wilders puts a symbolic end to this era. … Yes, Wilders' views are controversial and outside the mainstream. Wilders has the courage to say, 'the emperor has no clothes'. … Yes, some of Wilders' statements verge on populism. He offers some very simple solutions. But he is not a right-wing extremist. Like Pim Fortuyn, Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali he is a product of the Dutch people's frustration at how social consensus, which is based on freedom and tolerance, is being warped." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Migration, » Integration, » Minorities, » Weltanschauung, » Czech Republic, » Netherlands, » Global
All available articles from » Matyáš Zrno

The trial against John Demjanjuk, charged with 27,900 counts of accessory to murder as a Nazi concentration camp guard, began yesterday in Munich. Victims' associations accuse the 89-year-old, who was wheeled into the courtroom groaning, of feigning his pain. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung urges the state judiciary and private organisations not to cast themselves in the role of Nazi hunters: "For even for those accused of the most serious crimes the principle applies: their responsibility for these atrocities must first be proven in legal proceedings. They must be able to defend themselves adequately, they must be able to follow the trial, and like everyone else they can only be imprisoned if they are fit to endure imprisonment. Membership of a criminal organisation alone, even if it is proven, does not make the hearing of evidence on charges of mass murder superfluous." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Germany
All available articles from » Reinhard Müller

US President Barack Obama will announce his new Afghanistan strategy this evening. He will probably send more troops and also demand more soldiers from his allies to prevent a defeat, the left-liberal daily La Repubblica writes: "It is the result of a long, painstaking, controversial revision of the strategy. Since August Obama has had General Stanley McChrystal's report in his hands, confronting him with an either/or scenario: either a massive troop surge or certain defeat in Afghanistan. Despite this crucial warning Obama kept the Pentagon [the US defence ministry] on tenterhooks for three months. … He wanted to understand what had been going wrong in a war that has lasted for eight years now. He wanted the certainty that a new strategy is possible. This evening he must succeed in explaining the new strategy to a range of listeners with conflicting expectations." (01/12/2009)

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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 » Federico Rampini

With the coming into effect of the Lisbon Treaty, which bears the hallmarks of a certain type of politician, a new era begins for Europe today, Georgi Gotev writes in the weekly magazine Kultura: "The EU is changing among other things in that a new breed of politicians has emerged that has specialised in European themes from the very outset. Not so long ago all politicians would have had a noteworthy career in national politics before they went to Brussels. Now there are those who have worked all their lives exclusively in European institutions. A good example of this is the former president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering. Born in 1945 he started working in the EU parliament as an assistant and has spent thirty years there. Now his new mandate has begun. The disadvantage of such politicians is that often they are not very popular in their own countries. The advantage: since the construction of Europe is a complex matter specialists are particularly valuable here." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Georgi Gotev

One day before the Treaty of Lisbon goes into effect the EU has agreed on the controversial bank data exchange with the United States. The left-liberal Berliner Zeitung writes that the European governments have consciously acted against the spirit of EU reform: "This happened just a few hours before the EU Parliament obtained a full right to a say in this matter. ... As a result it is anything but a bagatelle. On the contrary, the agreement can have enormous consequences for the 500 million citizens of the EU. Anyone who transfers money to a country outside the Single Euro Payments Area (for example to the US or Turkey), must count on attracting the attention of US terror investigators. ... To the very end there was considerable resistance to the European governments' approach, but this made little impression on the European states. .. The EU Parliament has been disregarded and civil rights violated. There could not have been a worse start to the Treaty of Lisbon." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Thorsten Knuf

Representatives of small EU countries normally have little to say, but the future European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs from Finland Olli Rehn is an exception, writes the daily Etelä Saimaa: "The European states are highly indebted and prisoners of the global economy. Despite everything the euro group has the chance of maintaining its financial stability and credibility. There are plenty of examples of economies that have collapsed - from the Baltic countries right across to Iceland. Finland's luck has been its membership in the stable and crisis-resistant euro group of the European Union. And helping the economy to recover requires international cooperation. The EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs is a key figure in helping to bring the global economy back on track." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Finland, » Europe
All available articles from » Jorma Hernesmaa

The Gaudeamus International Book and Education Fair closed its doors in Bukarest last weekend with a record number of visitors. But after years of growth the fair badly needs a new location, writes the daily Gândul: "Certainly, one can only be delighted with the number of visitors at the Gaudeamus fair, as well as with the record sales figures for certain books. ... These are signs of normality in a society which needs to get itself back on track with the help of such cultural events. Less normal, however, is the increasingly aggressive mood at this fair. The pushing and shoving, the noise, the lack of oxygen, the cramped space and the inability to move or even relax all do more to keep visitors away from the books than to foster a conducive atmosphere. The fair has been growing for years now. It's time the organisers ... started thinking of the public. The book fair should have a suitable environment the next time it rolls around." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Literature, » Romania
All available articles from » Cristina Modreanu

The battle against Aids should be used to improve the healthcare systems of poor countries, Teresa González, the Spanish president of the international aid organisation Doctors of the World writes. World AIDS Day prompts her to comment in the leftist daily Público: "Aids has mobilised civilian societies in the South and in the North, and this has led to us not giving up in a battle that was believed impossible to win. Right now, one of the battles against the illness is being fought in rural areas in developing countries - the last front against an epidemic that must be fought in its entirety. In this sense the commitment in the fight against the disease could and should contribute to making public healthcare systems stronger. ... Let us make the most of this opportunity." (01/12/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Health Policy, » Health and Medicine, » Africa, » Asia, » Global
All available articles from » Teresa González

A growing number of beauty contests for children are being organised in Hungary. According to literary scholar Bettina Varga writing on the opinion page Komment.hu, this has the result of making the girls who take part in these comptetitions sexually aware at a very early age: "What this extreme phenomenon of child beauty contests shows is that even minors aren't immune to the skinniness craze, or to the pressure to perform exerted by today's society. ... A dysfunctional corporal self-image can be observed even in children under ten. ... All of this goes to show that children are exposed to the same detrimental influences as adults. Added to that is the fact that a growing number of underage girls are made to look like sexually attractive, erotically provocative adults. ... The responsibility for this premature sexualisation of children lies with today's zeitgeist, and particularly with their negligent parents." (26/11/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Weltanschauung, » Hungary, » Global
All available articles from » Betti Varga

In reporting on the trial against the presumed war criminal John Demjanjuk the second German television station (ZDF) called the German extermination camp at Sobibór "Polish". The Polish tabloid Fakt seethes with irony: "Dear German journalists, lo and behold, once again you have seen fit to use the term 'Polish concentration camp', this time referring to the camp in Sobibór. And once again we can't let it rest, although Germans had nothing whatsoever to do with the concentration camps or the extermination of the Jews. Or even Hitler's rise to power. Everyone knows the Germans fought tooth and nail against Hitler's dictatorship in the 1930s and 40s. And of course only a handful of people even bothered to attend Hitler's rallies - and they weren't even German." (01/12/2009)

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