The daily Diena considers that Iran has reached a decisive crossroads: "[Presidential candidate Mir-Hossein] Mousavi is certainly not a democrat in the Western sense, but he does promise change, including more rights for women and an alternative to incumbent president Ahmadinejad. The Iranian leadership is now faced with the biggest problem that can be confronted by any 'steered democracy': it can only function as long as the people agree to be steered in this way. If that's no longer the case, the regime can either drop to its knees or apply merciless repression. Iran's leaders have lost their legitimacy at home, and their nuclear programme has caused them to lose their legitimacy abroad. Now they are standing at this crossroads." (17/06/2009)

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All available articles from » Aivars Ozolins

The left-liberal daily El País writes that the mass protests pose a dilemma for Iran's regime: "More than anything else Iran needs a credible opposition that acts as such and contributes to cleaning up a perverted system. In the current situation the acid test consists in finding out how much brute force the rulers in Iran are willing to apply to bring their opponents to their knees and how willing the reformers are to expose the corrupt system. Tolerating the demonstrations will undermine - perhaps for good - a theocracy that can no longer be defended. Crushing them will liquidate the myth of an Islamic revolution of the people." (17/06/2009)

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At least for the outside world an election victory for presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi would only bring cosmetic change, writes the daily De Standaard. Because true power in Iran lies not with elected politicians but with the country's religious leaders: "A president Mousavi would have appeared as 'someone you can talk to'. But for the West, for Israel and on the Iranian nuclear programme he basically agrees with the supreme leader, Ayatollah [Sayyid Ali] Khamenei. ... The question arises whether Mousavi's supporters are really capable of plunging the regime into a political crisis. ... They are facing a formidable force: Khamenei and the religious establishment; the army and the revolutionary guard which control roughly a third of the economy; and the violent Basij militia. The price for political resistance is high in the Ayatollahs' repressive Iran. The outside world can only look on without any great illusions, and push for an honest recount of the votes." (17/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Domestic Policy, » Religion, » Iran
All available articles from » Mia Doornaert

The daily La Tribune de Genève examines the reasons for the uprising against the Iranian regime: "At first glance the picture seems clear. The mullahs' regime is being destabilised by a national uprising. But it won't be long before it regains the upper hand through arrests and - if necessary, open violence. However on closer examination you see that the situation is much more complex. Although the protests are aimed at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the religious leader [Sayyid Ali] Khamenei, the people demonstrating are not necessarily those one would expect. The presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi was once prime minister in the times of the Ayatollah Khomeini. … All the evidence points to a fight within the regime between the ultra-conservatives … and the pragmatists. … Undoubtedly Ahmadinejad's aggressiveness is to blame for this - that and his disastrous economic performance. Even the mullahs want better living standards." (17/06/2009)

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All available articles from » Andrés Allemand

The liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera takes a look at the repression of foreign media reporting in Iran: "The bureaucrats at the Ministry of Culture have turned off the tap drop by drop. First the government ordered that journalists' work should be made more difficult, then they blocked it altogether. ... Never before has there been such a ban in the Islamic Republic. In 1999 it was prohibited to film or photograph the suppression of the student revolts. Now you can't even go [to the demonstrations] with a notepad in your hand to jot down your thoughts. ... Ahmadinejad's answer is that people needn't fear for the freedom of the press, because 'newspapers come and go'." (17/06/2009)

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All available articles from » David Frattini

A new conservative pro-European party with the name TOP 09 has been founded in the Czech Republic. At its head is the popular former foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg. The Slovak business paper Hospodárske noviny comments: "[This is a party] with the strong leader Schwarzenberg, the prince, the aristocrat, the member of a family whose entire assets were once confiscated and who despite this injustice returned to his roots and represented the Czech Republic on the international stage. Naturally blue blood doesn't automatically translate into noble thoughts. But in the course of his brief political career Schwarzenberg has proven that in his case it does. The new party is an exception in several respects in Central Europe. It is based on deep moral principles and rejects any form of populism. … The most interesting aspect is its loyalty to Christian-Jewish roots - all the more striking because there is still anti-Semitism in the Czech Republic." (17/06/2009)

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

Dozens of protesters openly booed French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday at the funeral of former Gabonese president Omar Bongo Ondimba in Libreville. The French news blog Rue89 analyses Sarkozy's difficult relations with the former French colonies in Africa: "Without doubt Sarkozy has made no attempt to understand Africa, and every one of his African meetings has ended in failure. The whistles and cries of 'We don't want you here, go away!' ... are just the ultimate sign of a historic failure. ... Nicolas Sarkozy is paying for his evasive attitude to French Africa. As opposed to his predecessors since Charles De Gaulle, Sarkozy has no history with Africa. ... But above all, Nicolas Sarkozy will unfortumately go down in history as the man who was unable to revitalise French-African relations, which badly need to be restarted on a new basis." (16/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » France, » Africa
All available articles from » Pierre Haski

The daily SL Õhtuleht points to the drastic austerity measures the government in Latvia has resorted to in order to avert national bankruptcy. "Although Estonia is only just over half as big as Latvia its government earns almost twice as much. Given the competitive prices [in Latvia] our public sector should immediately start recruiting staff from Latvia, especially seeing as there is no guarantee that our own ruling class is not facing the same fate as its Latvian colleagues. … In Estonia there is not yet the will to cut salaries, but if it is not done now it won't ever happen. Naturally the [Estonian] government [led by Prime Minister Andrus] Ansip is afraid to tackle the salaries of teachers and policemen. But in Latvia teachers' salaries were cut by an incredible 40 percent to 243 euros a month." (17/06/2009)

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All available articles from » Laur Uudam

Wilfried Martens, head of the conservative European People's Party (EPP), has proposed to the Socialists and Liberals that the three forces join together in a grand coalition in the newly elected European Parliament. The weekly magazine Dilema Veche frowns upon the parties' growing complacency: "In the past three legislative periods the grand coalition has cultivated a sort of brotherhood, independent of the percentage of votes held by those concerned. ... The reduction of the Socialist faction now opens the way for a massive change in political logic. The European People's Party could enter into a coalition with the Liberals and various groups to the right of it. The rise in the number of small parties after these elections (from the Swedish 'Pirates' to the Russian-speaking parties of the Baltic States) could give the EPP more room to manoeuvre, and make it possible to negotiate each and every vote. ... One could also have said this if the Left had won: the European Parliament needs more bold adherents of political action." (17/06/2009)

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All available articles from » Cristian Ghinea

Giancarlo Dillena warns in the liberal Swiss daily Corriere del Ticino of the danger of exploiting the economic and financial crisis to re-establish the old barriers between capitalism and socialism: "To avoid the double trap of reductive pragmatism on the one hand and debilitating dogmatism on the other, we need a return to the authentic Western confrontation of ideas. That means the opposition of perspectival, non-dogmatic visions based on the interpretation of real facts; visions that give these facts meaning without subjecting them to the violence of an abstract, overarching order. ... That is the burden of ideologies. And for just this reason they unavoidably tend to become removed from Western democratic principles: the search for consensus through the free confrontation of ideas and the persuasive power of arguments. Once ideologies have set down what is right and what is good, they rapidly become insensitive. ... Because they believe themselves to be the bearers of one dogmatic truth or another, they feel duty-bound to confirm these wherever and however they can, without consideration for the needs, concerns and arguments of those who believe them false by definition." (17/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Weltanschauung, » Global
All available articles from » Giancarlo Dillena

Portuguese Nobel laureate in literature José Saramago writes in his blog "Caderno de Saramago” about the chances of peace in the Middle East. In his opinion the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories are the main obstacle to peace in the region: "The West Bank, in theory the land of the Palestinians, is covered with settlements. The whole world knows this. Some of them are 'legal' (or in other words approved and constructed by the government in Tel Aviv) while others are 'illegal' (those where the government has turned a blind eye). In total there are over 200 settlements … that today constitute the main obstacle on the path to peace. … Israel's former president Ehud Olmert seemed to be aware of this. In an interview with Haaretz newspaper in November 1907 (sic!) he said that 'it would mean the end of the Jewish state' if a two-state solution couldn't be agreed on soon. He did nothing to resolve the situation. But people took note of his words. They help us to realise that the settlers have always been the sword of Damocles hanging over the Israeli governments, and now … over Netanyahu's head. … So far Israel hasn't had the kind of government it takes to achieve peace." (16/06/2009)

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All available articles from » José Saramago

On Tuesday Germany was the last EU member state to publish a list of recipients of EU agricultural subsidies. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wonders why some German farmers had reservations about the publication: "Why are farmers so worried by the fact that from now on with just two clicks everyone can see on the Internet how much money they receive in EU subsidies? Certainly they can explain why they need these EU billions, as they say. After all, the 300 euros per hectare are meant as compensation for their having to meet higher environmental and animal protection standards than the rest of the world. ... Or could it be that they are afraid that one look at the Internet will make clear to everyone what the experts already know: that a large part of the money doesn't go to small farmers, but to large agricultural enterprises. Certainly, there are small ecological farmers who perhaps quite rightly receive taxpayers' money. That is open to discussion - but only once we know where the money from Brussels goes in the first place." (17/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Corporations, » Agriculture, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Europe
All available articles from » Hendrik Kafsack

Swedish sports car manufacturer Koenigsegg is to take over insolvent carmaker Saab from General Motors, the two companies announced this week. The liberal daily Göteborgs-Posten is moderately optimistic about the move: "There are still many question marks, above all when it comes to long-term financial security. It's a relief to hear that Saab has found a buyer. … The carmaker is being given a second chance. And it's a Swedish solution, albeit backed by a number of foreign investors. … With new owners and a modern, broad product range the company [Saab] has been helped by an economy that is taking a turn for the better. Let's keep our fingers crossed. … Despite all the uncertainties that remain." (17/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Economic Policy, » Labour, » Sweden

The conservative daily Rzeczpospolita praises the Polish government's plans to include Internet publications in its new press law but notes that the regulations is poorly crafted: "There is no doubt that certain information portals on the web differ from traditional dailies only in their format. Therefore there is no reason why they should not be subject to the same publishing obligations as ordinary publishers. Unfortunately the authors of the new regulations … have forgotten to define what a publication is. As a result, if the regulations come into effect in their current form the owners of hobby websites will also be subject to the regulations for publishers. … Unfortunately this is no joke. The ministerial officials should have another good look at the whole thing before they take on the regulation of the Internet." (17/06/2009)

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More from the press review on the subject » Media policy, » Poland
All available articles from » Tomasz Pietryga

Columnist Elisabeta Kazalotti analyses in the leftist daily Eletherotypia the success and identity of those who voted for the far right Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS ) party, which did exceptionally well in the European elections gaining 7.15 percent of the vote: "These are the people who believe in the triptych 'Homeland, Religion, Family'. Xenophobia, conservatism and prudishness are only a few of the characteristics of this particular caste of Greeks whose aesthetics reflect their questionable ethics. To this caste belong the majority of LAOS supporters - a party whose name betrays its populist … origins. Therefore we should not be surprised by the success of these right wingers who represent all those who see Greece as their own property on which they can dispose of their verbal and material refuse day by day. These are the people who see all strangers as enemies, and anything different as a deadly threat to their fragile equilibrium." (16/06/2009)

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All available articles from » Elisabeta Kazalotti