euro|topics - Lluís Bassets

21/11/2008

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Bassets, Lluís

Stellvertretender Chefredakteur der spanischen Tageszeitung El País. Ressortleiter Meinung. Betreiber des Blogs "De Alfiler a Elefante" = Von der Nadel (Mücke) zum Elefanten

5 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Lluís Bassets Blog - Spain | 24/09/2008

Collapsing walls and ideologies

Lluis Bassets, deputy editor in chief of the Spanish daily El País, writes in his blog Del Alfiler al Elefante about the end of an era and the dawn of a new one: "From one wall to the next: from the one that came down in Berlin to the one that changed in New York City [Wall Street] - this era lasted from 1989 to 2008. The history writers can sharpen their pencils. Between the two walls many dominoes have fallen: ideologies, for example, one after another. ... Now we are witnessing the purge of the purge; the collapse of the last victorious ideology. ... The motor which propelled the last era was greed, so now is not the time to start hurling accusations at one another. Capitalism without greed is something altogether different, and Europe knows it well: the social market economy, Rhine capitalism, Christian socialism, etc. These are all terms that provoked compassionate smiles on the other side of the Atlantic and which are now making a comeback with other names. We will see what happens to greed in this new era, and how long it takes for it to regain its former insolence and influence."

El País - Spain | 31/07/2008

A new class struggle

Following the collapse of the Doha round talks, the Spanish daily El País predicts the beginning of a "new class struggle" in global trade: "The good [times of] globalisation have come to an end. Gone are the good days when multilateral treaties pulled down trade barriers. The pessimists are painting a gloomy picture of a return to protectionism and trade blocks. The failure of the Doha round ... is a bad sign in times of an unstable economy. And when harsh winds blow even liberalists prefer to protect their sheep through state intervention. Next year only an election surprise in Washington could bring about a change in mood that would bring the Doha talks out of the current impasse. The surprise would not be that Obama becomes president but that he does not ... turn out to be a protectionist."

El País - Spain | 19/06/2008

Popular with the Left and the Right

Lluís Bassets comments on the European Parliament 's approval of the draft Returns Directive: "The ease with which a clear majority can be won over to restricting immigration stands in stark contrast to the difficulty of convincing Europeans of the necessity of raising expenditures for defence, of maintaining peace missions abroad and of playing an active role internationally. Restricting immigration is popular, raising the defence budget is not. And this is true for both the Left and the Right. There are right-wing demagogues who fan xenophobia but who would not give a penny for European defence. And there are the do-gooders on the Left for whom the military may only be used for peace-keeping missions, but who do not hesitate to support the Returns Directive."

El País - Spain | 27/09/2007

Lluís Bassets against the hyprocrisy of Heads of State

"Alan Greenspan, former president of the American Federal Reserve, the man who masterminded the dazzling development of the new economy recently said in his memoirs that the leaders of the planet are all fighting for petrol", writes Lluís Bassets, chief editor of the daily's opinion pages. "The soloists are intoning psalmodies on arms of mass destruction, the anti-terrorist struggle, human rights, the elimination of dictatorships... . They are insisting against nuclear proliferation, embodied by Iran ... . But same old tune, with a few variations, is still playing in the background: energy is always the key issue. ... What better banner than democracy to be waved by a president [George Bush] whose moral authority and international prestige has been a tainted by Guantanmo and Abou Ghraib. ... But pay no attention, it is only for energy."

El País - Spain | 22/03/2007

What future for Europe?

Lluís Bassets, editor of the daily's opinion pages, does not see a future for the EU unless it manages to drastically reform the way it works. "The unanimous vote demanded for a number of policies - energy and foreign policies among others - has become an insurmountable obstacle, to such an extent that, if Germany does not manage to get round it during its presidency, deconstruction will take place. ... Will we be celebrating the centenary of the Treaty of Rome in 50 years time ? Will there be anything left to celebrate then ? Are there any premonitory signs ? The rampant Europhobic populism in Poland, the nuclear power stations proliferating on the southern coast of the Mediterranean or the Chinese competition in the face of Airbus that is being forecast. Without a radical change of direction, someone will be celebrating, in Moscow or Istanbul perhaps, the centenary of a Europe on the verge of extinction, if it has not already disappeared."

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