It was predictable that Eta would declare a ceasefire, writes the liberal daily La Stampa, adding that like the ones before it, this truce can't be trusted: "As has been foreseeable for months now, the Basque terrorists of Eta yesterday announced a ceasefire. ... This is the usual appeal to our imagination, but with a twist. This time the terrorists have neither fixed a period for the truce nor have they demanded direct negotiations with the Spanish and French governments, as they did the 16 other times they called a ceasefire. ... The truce comes at a time when Eta is weaker than ever: 800 of its murderers are behind bars and it is leaderless (eight of it leaders were arrested in 2009 alone). The previous ceasefires were used by the terrorists to reorganise for a return to the killing. So it's entirely possible that this is just another ruse." (06/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Gian Antonio Orighi

The liberal daily La Vanguardia reacts sceptically to Eta's video message according to which it no longer plans to carry out "offensive armed actions". It says it is too early to start negotiating with the Basque terrorist organisation: "This is the eleventh time since 1981 that Eta has announced a ceasefire. Each time the group shattered the hopes for dialogue, like in 2006 when it bombed the terminal 4 car park [at Madrid airport] without announcing it explicitly beforehand. ... In its current state of weakness regarding both its rejection by most of Basque society and its possibilities of maintaining a half-way efficient structure, it was clear that sooner or later it would end up renouncing violence, a prerequisite for dialogue. This prerequisite has still not been fulfilled." (06/09/2010)

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

The Basque terrorist organisation Eta is fooling itself if it thinks it can have a say in politics, writes the left-liberal daily Berliner Zeitung: "It doesn't want to recognise that apart from being criminal it is also superfluous. The legitimate business of politics is carried out elsewhere: in the Basque parliament in Vitoria and in the Spanish parliament in Madrid. The Basques send deputies to both to decide over issues concerning the present and the future of the Basque Country. It is presumptuous and absurd for an organisation whose business is murder and blackmail to demand a say in this debate. ... In recent months Spanish and French police have arrested dozens of presumed Etarras, and the organisation is weaker than ever. What Eta does not explain is what it plans to do now; whether it will set conditions on the ceasefire or lay down its weapons for good. That is the sole announcement with which Eta could surprise the world: to declare its own end. But it's as far from taking that step as it ever has been." (06/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Martin Dahms

Negotiations over a minority government comprising Christian Democrats and the right-wing Liberal Party have fallen through in the Netherlands. The right-wing populist Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) had wanted to support the government, has now broken off the talks. Floris-Jan van Luyn expresses his disappointment in the daily nrc.next: "I would have been happy if this had worked out. Not because I'm a [Wilders] fan, but because just like a couple of million other Dutch people I've had enough of this party's agitation and divisiveness. ... It is clear that in the opposition the PVV will continue to grow, meaning that we'll only be in for worse times after the next elections. To get rid of the PVV as quickly as possible it would have been a good idea to include it in the government, rather than viewing that as a risk. Because if its maladjusted, anti-social policies were put into practice they would have done our country so much damage that a repetition of this mistake would be improbable." (06/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Floris-Jan van Luyn

France's president Nicolas Sarkozy has invited several EU member states to an immigration summit taking place today, Monday, in Paris. The meeting will focus among other things on the Roma issue. The liberal daily Mladá fronta Dnes considers it particularly ironic that the dispute over the Roma was kicked off by Sarkozy of all people: "By a 'Hungarian' with French-Jewish roots whose name is also common among the Roma people. It stems from the word 'sár' (muddy) and 'köz' (crossroad), and refers to its bearer as someone who lives in a muddy ghetto or belongs there in terms of social status. Some traditional Hungarian villages used to have non-surfaced streets where the poor and the Roma lived. In Žitný ostrov [an area in southern Slovakia where members of the Hungarian minority live] people still say: 'It doesn't matter what you do you'll always be a Sárközi' - a victim of your environment. At least from a moral point of view, Sarkozy has remained a 'Sárközi'." (06/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU Policy, » Minorities, » France, » Europe
All available articles from » Rostislav Matulík

The President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Gianfranco Fini has announced the end of the ruling PDL party which expelled him following vigorous disputes. But he has not broken his ties with Prime Minister Berlusconi, whom he has offered a pact that would last until the end of the current legislative period. In so doing he has wasted an important opportunity, writes the liberal Swiss daily Corriere del Ticino: "Gianfranco Fini concentrated in his speech solely on his own expulsion and his right to criticise within the party, with regard to the method of party leadership. ... Rather than talking about the birth of a new people of freedom Fini should have talked of the resurrection of Italy from the rubble under which it is buried. ... A speech which will probably lead to neither a rupture with Berlusconi nor a government crisis, but which fails to put an end to the crisis of 'Berlusconiism' and that of the entire country. In the end they will reach a compromise and everything will stay the same - according to the old method of announcing great changes so that nothing changes." (06/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Piero Ostellino

The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been in office for 100 days. His ruling party Fidesz has begun to undermine democracy in the country, writes Florence La Bruyère, foreign correspondent for the French daily Libération in the left-liberal Sunday paper Vasárnapi Hírek: "By giving the most important post in the state apparatus to party hacks he has weakened democracy. Who can seriously believe that the new president of the state audit office, who is a member of the right-wing conservative Fidesz party, will be neutral when it comes to the questionable financing affairs of his party? ... In its first 100 days the Orbán government has broken with EU customary laws the foundation of which is that a party may not abuse its election victory - no matter how impressive - to weaken democracy. The Hungarian voters elected the Fidesz party because they want good and effective government. This however doesn't mean that they consent to the Third Republic being dismantled." (05/09/2010)

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All available articles from » Florence La Bruyère

The think tank Insor which has close ties to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has published plans for a rapprochement between Russia and Nato. Excellent news, writes the conservative daily Rzeczpospolita, which is prone to take a critical stance regarding Russia: "Rapprochement between Russia and Nato, Russian membership in the Alliance, true, it sounds like pure fantasy. But Medvedev's advisors have seriously weighed various possibilities for being integrated into Nato. That is good news for us, because it means that Russia really has changed in a positive direction. For all those who take an impartial, dispassionate stance on international relations it is clear that Nato is not Russia's enemy. The world has changed so much that the real danger for Moscow does not lie in the West, but in the South and the East. Emotions continue to play a role in politics, however. And millions of Russians continue to see the North Atlantic Alliance as an enemy." (06/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Poland, » Russia
All available articles from » Piotr Kościński

Turkey and Greece are cautiously drawing closer to each other, but the public mistrust in both countries still poses an obstacle, writes Giannis Kartalis in the left-liberal daily To Vima: "It remains to be seen whether the benevolent attitude of the Turkish government following the mass at the Panagia Sumela Monastery [a mass was held there for the first time in 80 years recently] and the reopening of the Orthodox university in Heybeliada [the seminary on the Turkish island was closed down in 1971] will last. It is at any rate encouraging that unlike with previous events many progressive Turkish journalists are expressing the opinion that [Turkish Prime Minister] Erdoğan should stick to this path. ... The question now is whether there are also journalists in Greece who would openly support the building of a mosque for the many Muslim immigrants living in Athens." (06/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » EU enlargement, » Greece
All available articles from » Giannis Kartalis

French sociologist Eric Fassin discusses the shift to the right in French immigration policy in the left-liberal daily Libération: "Since the 1980s we have been living in France under the sway of the 'threshold of tolerance'. On the Left as on the Right it has become accepted that it is necessary to come to terms with the 'immigration problem'. After all, wasn't that the reason for Front National's success in the polls? Certainly, it wasn't a question of espousing the ideas of the extreme right, but rather of reconquering one's electorate and furnishing new answers to the same questions. To combat the temptation of xenophobia the thing to do was avoid any trace of 'idealism', and to demonstrate hard and fast 'realism'. France could not 'welcome all the misery of the world' if it was to avoid running up against the threshold of tolerance, primarily among the lower classes." (06/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Migration, » France
All available articles from » Eric Fassin

With the EU decision to establish a European financial supervisory authority the 27 different political frameworks governing financial services will at last be centralised, the liberal business paper Handelsblatt writes approvingly: "Even Deutsche Bank should be thankful that the EU is now finally unravelling the tangle of national financial market laws and bundling them together, particularly since national legislators are constantly producing new contradictions. ... Last but not least, the foundation of the EU financial supervisory body is good news for taxpayers. They suffer under the burden of billions in costs for the huge gaps in national supervision that opened up during the financial crisis. ... The European bank supervisory authority will in future have the power to stop risky deals when a major bank gets into trouble - if necessary against the will of a passive national supervisory authority." (06/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Europe
All available articles from » Ruth Berschens

The industrial states are growing continually weaker in comparison to the emerging economies, writes the liberal-conservative daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and Europe, the US and Japan are menaced by a decline in prosperity: "Above and beyond unresolved inner-European problems, the industrial countries not only face increased competition from the emerging economies but also unprecedented demographic problems. Never before have nations been confronted with such an ageing phenomenon, and many countries are financially unequipped. The US and Europe are now hard put to follow the good advice they gave to developing and emerging countries concerning budget policy during earlier crises. Whatever else is true, the budget situation in many industrial countries is considerably worse than in most emerging economies. As a result of this and the major debts incurred during the last financial crisis the West has lost much of its function as role model for other economies." (05/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Global
All available articles from » Walter Meier

The growing amount of traffic in Estonia means it is high time for a new transport policy, writes the daily Eesti Päevaleht: "In Soviet times cars were not articles of everyday use but luxury products. You had to wait years to get a permit to buy one and only few could afford their own car. So it's no wonder cars became a symbol of Western freedom and their number exploded after the country regained independence. While only 126,000 vehicles were registered in Estonia in 1980, today there are five times as many: 545,000. But with the cars came the problems: traffic jams, air pollution, noise and hundreds of millions of kroons invested in new roads. ... From the state's point of view it would be clever to try and slow down this trend, not with sanctions but with positive measures such as expanding public transport." (06/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Health Policy, » Environmental Policy, » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Estonia

In a child abuse trial which has gone on for almost six years in Portugal, the court has now pronounced six of the defendants guilty. The prominent perpetrators from political and media circles abused at least 32 minors living in Casa Pia children's homes. The daily Público takes issue with how the media dealt with the trial: "Yesterday it became clear: the days when a court could pronounce a verdict of guilty or innocent in accordance with the law are over. No sooner had the verdict been announced than justice left the place where it was supposed to be meted out and found itself being broadcast live on television. ... What happened today doesn't seem to guarantee that those who are charged with the task of administrating justice can do so in peace. Those who don't understand this are willing to tolerate the idea of mob rule or the rule of force. Or worse still, they admit that justice is dead in Portugal." (06/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Portugal