According to Peter Schutz, the recording of Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's speech to party members is "by far the biggest scandal in the history of Hungarian democracy since 1989. This speech, which without a doubt has been leaked into the public domain now because of the upcoming elections, is nothing less than a confession by the key player that the party elite used lies and deception to buy votes because it put power above the long-term interests of the state. ... The protests aimed at forcing the prime minister to resign may spiral out of control, but the main point is the following: it has been shown that politics in Hungary is based on permanent lying. However this applies to all democracies and their political elites." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Hungría
Todos los textos disponible de » Peter Schutz

Ulrich Schmid speculates on the impact of Ferenc Gyurcsany's admission. "It doesn't really look like this most recent scandal will be Gyurcsany's downfall. The socialist faction in the Hungarian parliament gave him their full backing on Monday, September 18, and the Socialists' coalition partner, the Free Democrats, have opted for a passive stance. ... As grotesque as it may seem, this whole affair could turn out to be nothing more than a tempest in a teacup. Gyurcsany, who over the years has displayed a vulgarity which calls to mind that of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, obviously lacks any sense of responsibility. It's typical of his conduct that he's now trying to make a virtue out of his sins and posing as a moral authority." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Hungría
Todos los textos disponible de » Ulrich Schmid

According to Klaus Brill, Hungary needs Ferenc Gyurczany. "The prime minister deserves credit for not distancing himself from his statements now that they've become public. He certainly doesn't lack courage, and it was already clear to the attentive observer that he was right. Over the past eight years Hungary has gone from being a model post-communist state to being the worst of all. With the exception of the privatisation of former state-owned enterprises, none of the planned reforms have been carried through, despite all the eager investors and abundant tax revenues. ... The Conservatives are as much to blame for the disastrous state of the economy as the Social Democrats, whom Gyurcsany has been leading for only two years. They failed just as miserably under Viktor Orban's government between 1998 and 2002 as the Social Democrats have failed. It would therefore not improve the situation if the current prime minister were to resign. Gyurcsany has been given the task of getting the country back on its feet and now he should finally get on with it." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Hungría
Todos los textos disponible de » Klaus Brill

Josef Makai likens the Socialists' government crisis with Tony Blair's predicament in the Iraq scandal. "Blair, who by the way backed the Hungarian socialists in their election campaign, claimed that Iraq owned weapons of mass destruction which could reach London within 45 minutes. The Hungarian socialists have been looking for a Hungarian version of Tony Blair for years now. Well, now they have him: Gyurcsany is just as good at telling lies as his colleague in London." (18/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Hungría
Todos los textos disponible de » József Makai

In an interview with Chiara Penzo, the Franco-Tunisian Abdelwahab Meddeb considers that the Pope should have "refrained from regretting" the controversy provoked by his comments. "The Muslim world has missed a good opportunity to reconsider itself. In his Regensburg talk, the Pope put his finger on the origins of what I call in my work 'Islam's illness', which is also the basis of Islamism. The question of violence in Islam is a reality. When the Pope evoked the close relationship between this religion and violence, he spoke the truth, even if Islam should not be separated from reason. I would have liked an open-minded and enlightened imam to take a hold  of his speech and open up the debate, recognising that Benedict had a point, to a degree. Because there is no single Islamic doctrine, but texts that deserve debate and analysis. The Muslim world could use some intellectual effervescence." (18/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Religión, » Ideología, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Abdelwahab Meddeb

Following the polemic triggered by Benedict XVI and his comments on Islam, Khaled Fouad Allam, Islam specialist and professor at the University of Trieste, considers that it is urgent for dialogue between religions to be re-established. "Our times are marked by the odd characteristic of frequently resorting to medieval unintelligibility to get a riposte. Muslims, like Christians, evoke texts from distant times, times that are coming back to life at a vertiginous speed. ... Today, Muslims, like Christians and the west, suffer from a real impairment concerning their view of others ... . I still believe that, beyond languages and religions, men are my brothers. It is no doubt a facile utopia, but it is something we need to re-conquer, that we should reclaim for ourselves, in order to repair the divorce between history and memory and be reunited to share bread and salt." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Religión, » Filosofía, » Ideología, » Italia, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Khaled Fouad Allam

The daily considers the signature on Monday, September 18, of tripartite agreements between Britain, Gibraltar and Spain. "Yesterday's agreements will afford welcome breathing space to the colony. They will open its airport to flights from Spain and the rest of Europe and greatly increase the number of its telephone lines. The Spanish have undertaken further to ease restrictions at the land border and the British to pay a lump sum to those pensioners who worked in Gibraltar until Franco closed the frontier in 1969. Spain will benefit economically, while at the same time not renouncing its claim to sovereignty; the forum has an open agenda. From Madrid's point of view, greater economic links with the colony have always seemed a better way of advancing its cause than trying to strangle it. It has taken decades, and a particularly determined chief minister [Gibraltarian Peter Caruana], for the penny at last to drop." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de la UE, » Gran Bretaña, » España, » Europa

"Yesterday, Gibraltar took its first steps along the road to independence regarding the United Kingdom and Spain. Unfortunately, this appears to represent the future horizon for the 'Rock'", regrets the daily on the day after Spain, Great Britain and Gibraltar signed agreements for cooperation and neighbourliness. It regrets "the introduction of a formula that of course satisfies the interests of the British and the Gibraltarians, but not those of our country, which should recover total sovereignty of this territory which was taken away from Spain after the Utrecht treaty in 1714. ... Our diplomacy put on a poor show yesterday, only obtaining, in exchange for numerous concessions, the meagre compensation of being able to open a Cervantes Institute in Gibraltar, which amounts to recognising that it is a foreign territory...". (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de la UE, » Gran Bretaña, » España, » Europa

"For some reason Greek cooperation is important to both Moscow and Washington", reflects Costas Iordanidis, refering to Putin's recent visit in Greece. "More surprising than the niceties coming from the White House, a traditional ally of Greece, particularly after the Second World War, is the political overture from the Russian leader that was sealed with a significant energy deal. ... The Russian president is clearly trying to reduce dependence on Turkey and consolidate alternative routes for the transfer of Russian oil and gas to Europe. Although Washington backed the construction of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, it will not be too keen about the prospect of a gas pipeline in the Aegean which would increase Europe's energy dependence on Russia. Undaunted, Putin is set to meet with the French president and the German chancellor in Paris on September 23." (18/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política de la UE, » Grecia, » Rusia
Todos los textos disponible de » Costas Iordanidis

"France has accommodated the National Front [FN/Front National], it has learned to live with it, even to use it to punish the big parties or shout its discomfort into Europe's face", analyses Christophe Barbier, director of the weekly publication. "Here lies the most important political phenomenon of the past 25 years, as much as the end of ideologies, more than the withering of communism, the flowering of ecology, or the metamorphosis of the Socialist Party into a management party. And yet, the FN has never held any other power than the power to damage. ... What ever happens next spring [date of the presidential elections], Le Pen [FN president] will not be elected President of the Republic. Because he will never be credible and will always be harmful, more dangerous than appropriate. ... After 2007, he will live  a little tyrant's twilight. When words run out, let the tribune turn puppet theatre and the puppet bring on laughter, not fear." (14/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Francia
Todos los textos disponible de » Christophe Barbier

Voters in Sunday's general elections were also asked to vote on the inner-city toll in Stockholm . While (by a slim majority) residents of Stockholm voted in favour of keeping the toll after the six-month trial period, residents of the 14 districts on the outskirts of the city voted against it. According to the Stockholm newspaper this tricky situation is the first political challenge awaiting the new prime minister, Frederik Reinfeldt. "The issue will now be passed on to the Riksdag. It would be foolish to put an end to the toll despite the fact that the majority of Stockholm residents have voted in favour of keeping it. On the other hand, it wouldn't be a good idea to introduce the toll system on a permanent basis this year. There must be a compromise solution. Following the predominantly positive experiences during the trial phase, it seems sensible to introduce this tax instrument permanently." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Infraestructuras / Tráfico, » Suecia
Todos los textos disponible de » Johannes Åman

Latvia's economy grew by 12 percent in the first half of 2006, making it one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Martins Apinis warns about the dangers of this phenomenon, pointing out that one of the main factors behind the growth is the boom in borrowing. "According to the Financial and Capital Market Commission, Latvian banks accumulated a credit portfolio of 10.9 billion euros in the first six months of 2006. That's 59 percent more than in the same period last year. This is particularly noticeable in the construction and real estate sector, which in turn influences trade and production. But although experts say the property market will continue to boom for a while, people are worried about the high inflation. An economy whose growth is based on rising consumption cannot be a good one – particularly when the rate of growth for production and exports is decelerating at the same time." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Economía, » Letonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Martins Apinis

Turkish novelist Elif Shafak, 34, has been charged under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code with 'insulting Turkishness' through the fictional dialogue in her bestselling novel 'The Bastard of Istanbul'. She explains to Suna Erdem that this trial is not just about her book, but part of a political effort by extreme nationalists to hamper Turkey's EU aspiration by demonstrating how un-European it is. "I think the biggest worry regarding Article 301 is not that it puts people in prison but it silences them. It means they are now trying to control art, and this is very alarming because in Turkey - a country that witnessed three military takeovers - art and literature had always been autonomous. ... We are seeing a clash between those who wholeheartedly support the EU process, and others who want to turn this society into a xenophobic, isolationist country." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Política interior, » Turquía
Todos los textos disponible de » Elif Shafak

The 'Fondation de l'Hermitage' in Lausanne is proposing a retrospective of the painter Georg Baselitz. In an interview with Francoise Jaunin, the artist analyses his work's influences. "I was born in former East Germany. When I was studying in 1950, there were two sides: on the West, abstraction, on the East, figurative art. We were told that anything was possible, that never before had the freedom of the artist been so great. Personally, I didn't see anything really liberating in the Bauhaus, or in the School of Paris, or in Pop Art. There remained only one solution: to reinvent figuration. And that can only be achieved by an artist with two forms of material: what he draws from his own inner depths and what was done before him. Art History is a formidable reservoir of models." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Exposiciones / Museos, » Suiza
Todos los textos disponible de » Georg Baselitz

"Over the past couple of years there has been a marked tendency to use surrealist motifs in advertising. Substances gleam, gush and float around, the logics of space no longer apply and manipulation of light is used to transfigure what is being shown beyond recognition," Wolfgang Ullrich reports. He sees two reasons for the popularity of surrealist motifs in advertising. "When you're using special effects you can exaggerate things without risk. The exaggeration generally pertains to the product's qualities, and it's easier to stress these qualities in this way, which is the second reason for the use of surrealism." Ullrich describes refined methods "not just for finding out what expectations consumers have of a certain product, but also for finding out what kind of images and metaphors consumers associate with that product. Advertisements then use these images and metaphors. Therefore, what may seem surreal is nothing more than the sum of the daydreams of a consumer society made visible." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Música, » Cultura cotidiana, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Wolfgang Ullrich

'The F word: Images of forgiveness' is an exhibition in Belfast which uses accounts from around the world, prompting a debate on forgiveness. Fionnuala O Connor investigates. "An introductory leaflet says the aim is to tell the stories of people who have found 'that the only way to move on is to set aside hatred and blame'. It does that. It also tells a few stories of people who do not forgive. There is also a family with deathly illnesses brought on by the Chernobyl disaster, who have been abandoned by the disintegrating communist state, their savings swallowed up by collapsing banks that made others very rich. ... Alastair Little, who shot a man dead when he was a 17-year-old UVF man, goes on to say: 'And some people can't forgive. But that doesn't mean they're weak, or that they'll be consumed by bitterness or anger. ... Unfortunately reconciliation and forgiveness have been politicised, so for me they've lost their value'." (19/09/2006)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Exposiciones / Museos, » Cultura cotidiana, » Irlanda
Todos los textos disponible de » Fionnuala O`Connor