"Today the era of the 'twin republic' begins in Poland," Josef Kirchengas announces referring to the assumption of office of Lech Kaczynski, whose twin brother Jaroslaw is head of the national conservative ruling party "Law and Justice" (PiS). However, Kirchengast expresses his concern about the means by which the Kaczynski brothers intend to propel moral reform in Poland. "They want strong state control of social and economic affairs, cultural hegemony and increased state influence in the media, far-reaching powers for the State security machine and a strong role for the President. We are familiar with all these things because we see them in Vladimir Putin's authoritarian Russia. The Russia that Poland's new rulers love to hate. And yet it seems as if they want to reform their own country along these lines." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, alemán)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Polonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Josef Kirchengast

"Poland's europeanisation process has begun," Kazimierz Kik, the director of the Institute of Political Sciences at the Swietokrzyska Academy, based in Kielce, says in an interview. "Society is much more pro-European than the president and government. It is the forces around the government and the president that are anti-European. And the basis of this is not euroscepticism, but nationalism. It does not arise from an anti-European feeling, but from historical complexes..." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, francés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Polonia

Editor-in-chief Grzegorz Gauden lists his expectations of the new Polish government and its president. "Without doubt, Poland's political landscape is undergoing great change, first with Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's new government and now with the swearing in of Lech Kaczynski. The time has come for him to take over the task of real government and fulfil his election pledges. The latter were sometimes inconsistent and bordered on populism. As an experienced opposition politician, even under communist dictatorship, it is his duty to uphold the constitutional principles cherished by his party and not give in to the temptation of taking shortcuts in implementing vital reforms. I am convinced that Kaczynski will adhere to these principles." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, polaco)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Polonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Grzegorz Gauden

Jan Philipp Reemtsma, director of the Hamburg Institute for Social Research and himself once the victim of abduction, reflects in an interview with Jan Feddersen on proposals to make torture legal in certain cases put forward by American intellectuals such as Michael Ignatieff and Alan Derchovitz. According to Reemstma, this would be a grave mistake. "We would have to draw up a law, then the methods of torture would have to be discussed and then there would be a big parliamentary debate and finally a public discussion about torture methods, including questions such as: Can people be deprived of their sleep? Can their bones be broken? Can they be given electric shocks? Can they be burned with cigarettes? Where should we draw the line? Think what this would entail: it would mean sacrificing some of the progress we have made in becoming a civilised people, and of which we should be proud. It would mean barbarising the general public." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, alemán)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Jan Philipp Reemtsma

Patrick Baudouin, a lawyer and honourary president of the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR), expresses alarm over the growing number of special anti-terrorist laws such as the one France has just adopted. "Those who really risk becoming the main victims of the overblown security measures linked to anti-terrorism are not the terrorists, but citizens and democracies. (...) The time is ripe for us to mobilise in order to break the infernal spiral that leads us, with each dramatic terrorist act, driven by strong emotions and even panic, to irrationally and demogogically adopt measures that are as counter-productive as they are illegitimate and which run counter to international human rights law. (...) We must not forget that State terror claims more victims in the world every day than terrorism." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, francés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Francia
Todos los textos disponible de » Patrick Beaudouin

"Have gas pipelines become the nuclear weapons of our times?" asks Paul Goble, a lecturer at the Estonian University of Tartu, reflecting on how strategic instruments of power have changed over time. "In Ancient Egypt, power was based on a ruler's ability to irrigate his land. In Rome, it was based on the road networks which enabled troops to move quickly. Later, there were war ships – and during the Cold War it was the possession of nuclear weapons. Now, however, the nature of international conflict has changed." Goble points out that this has also entailed a change in the instruments of power. "The construction of the gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea must be observed in this context. Moscow has decided to use gas as a weapon against the Ukraine and other states within its sphere of influence, including Estonia." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, estonio)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Estonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Paul Goble

The daily runs an opinion piece by Gary Kasparov published by the Wall Street Journal in which the former chess champion, who has become one of the fiercest critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin, considers Gerhard Schröder's appointment to a high-level post in the Russian gas giant, Gazprom. "...Germany's most powerful politicians and businessmen can be purchased the way a Russian oligarch might buy an aristocratic Bavarian estate (...). "...Mr. Putin has made the nation's energy resources the center of his ruling clique that has erased the lines between public and private power and assets. (...) Mr. Putin has made a priority of further tightening the unholy bond between his regime's internal and external goals and the company that provides most of the natural gas to Central and Eastern Europe." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, español)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Rusia
Todos los textos disponible de » Garry Kasparov

Former education minister Zoltan Pokorin looks anxiously ahead to the time after 2011 when the older EU states will no longer be able to restrict the free movement of Hungarian workers. "On the one hand, it's a good thing, but it could also be dangerous. The state will no longer have the administrative means to prevent the emigration of our best workers: no visas and no borders in the traditional sense of the word. Will Hungary not suffer when all of a sudden hundreds of thousands of the country's most ambitious, motivated and highly qualified young people leave?” (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, húngaro)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Hungría
Todos los textos disponible de » Zoltan Pokorni

Thursday's compromise EU deal on 2006 fishing quotas requiring British fleets to cut their hauls of cod and herring by 15% does not go far enough, the daily writes in a leader. "King Cod is in danger of losing more than just its throne. Stocks are alarmingly low, with scientists forecasting, persuasively, continuing depletion. Relentless pursuit of cod has left North Sea stocks at about 46,000 tonnes, less than a third of the recommended minimum. In some waters off the West of Scotland, numbers are so low that scientists claim they cannot provide reliable estimates. (...) A blanket moratorium is a dramatic step, but bans only work if they are imposed in time. (...) Without one for cod, future generations may have no idea what the British staple tasted like." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, inglés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Economía, » Europa

As French parliamentarians debate a proposed bill aimed at controlling file transfers over the Internet via peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, the editorial writer Patrick Laam points out that "protecting copyright is essential in a community such as French society, which prizes cultural diversity. (...) The problem is difficult to solve through legislation. Because, on the one hand, the Internet offers everyone wider access to culture and knowledge and, as such, its use must not be restricted. Moreover, we also see that the biggest copiers are also often the biggest consumers of CDs and DVDs. Yet on the other hand, we must not allow the illegal practice of file-downloading to spread at the expense of creators, who see themselves as the dispossessed of the Web." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, francés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Francia
Todos los textos disponible de » Patrick Laam

For several months now, Estonia has been discussing the introduction of compulsory religious education at schools. Professor Rein Raud sees the debate as a sign of an inner breakdown in values, which religious education can't resolve. "A civil society must be based on respect for each of its members and the protection of their individuality as established by the law. In the age of information we are no longer automatically and irreversibly born into a religion as we were a couple of centuries ago. Today, most of those who belong to a religion have made a conscious decision to do so." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, estonio)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » Estonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Rein Raud

Philippe Mathonnet takes stock of the year in arts and finds that "it is stand-out artists working on their own who make the biggest splash these days" in the art world. He cites in particular Christo's installation of 7,500 orange gates in New York's Central Park, in January 2005. For Mathonnet, these exhibitions "have taken precedence over artistic collectives. As if, in displaying works of outsized proportions, you were somehow required, through a mirror effect, to flatter a sort of sanctification of the individual in the viewing public. It is a way of demonstrating that in this world where battles are becoming ever fiercer, each person has to fend for himself without relying on others. One can like or not like this position. But this way of seeing things has allowed some beautiful examples of life's trajectories and adventures to make their way into the 2005 appointment book." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, francés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Suiza
Todos los textos disponible de » Philippe Mathonnet

Niklas Maak hails an exhibition due to open tonight in the "White Cube" – an improvised art gallery in Berlin's soon-to-be-demolished Palace of the Republic – as "Berlin's exhibition miracle". Maak explains that the show was a spontaneous idea that organisers of the exhibition came up with. "They called Thomas Scheibitz, the Berlin-based artist who represented Germany at this year's biennial festival in Venice, and how it went from there is now a legend. Scheibitz called some friends of his who are also artists and they called friends of theirs and after just 19 days, without the backing of either curators or an institution, they had put together an exhibition the likes of which Berlin hasn't seen for a long time. More than 30 internationally renowned artists, most of who live in Berlin, are exhibiting their latest works in the "White Cube", and seldom has such a comprehensive picture of Berlin's contemporary art emerged." (22/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, alemán)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Cultura, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Niklas Maak

"The conference of the European Association of History Educators (Euroclio) is going to devote less attention to promoting the development of a European awareness in history lessons. The subsidies allowing us to continue this work have dried up at the source, especially from the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry," writes the daily. Nonetheless, "the Dutch know too little about Europe, as illustrated by the surveys on the reasons for the 'No' vote to the European Constitution." (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, holandés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Holanda
Todos los textos disponible de » Maark Duursma

"'Every stitch is a stitch closer to finishing'." That according to Patricia Jones, one of 60 volunteer stitchers in the Irish town of Wexford taking part in a decade-long "cultural community project" to create the Ros Tapestry, "a multipanel work which would record Wexford's Norman history, and which, when completed, would go on permanent display in St. Mary's." Ruins of the original Norman church, founded in 1210, still stand on the site of the newer, 19th-century house of worship. (23/12/2005)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, inglés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Historia, » Irlanda
Todos los textos disponible de » Rosita Boland

Czechs traditionally eat carp on Christmas Eve. But it's no longer as popular as it used to be, as the newspaper discovered to its own surprise. Although according to an opinion survey 80 percent of Czechs intend to eat carp this Christmas, "25 percent of them have admitted that they don't like the taste and that they are eating it only for the sake of tradition." (23/12/2005)

» ir a la página de inicio (enlace externo, Mladá fronta Dnes)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Sociedad, » La República Checa