Adrian Ursu sees the low voter turnout as an indication that Romanians are weary of politics: "The abstinence of more than half of those entitled to vote shows that the suspended president's election campaign only served to fan hostilities among all political actors, including Basescu. Moreover, the 75 percent of those who went to the ballot and voted against his suspension weren't just thinking of Basescu. Some of the voters, filled with hatred for the parliament which the people feel doesn't represent them, just wanted to get rid of it... Peace will not return to Romania following the referendum; neither of the two camps has announced this. We will return to the same old Romania with the same president and a lost sense of trust - every country has the politicians it deserves." (20/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, rumano)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Rumania
Todos los textos disponible de » Adrian Ursu

Voters evidently regard Traian Basescu "as the champion of the renewal of state and society", writes Klaus Brill, who remains sceptical: "The reconfirmed president has weakened the country's institutions with public humiliations and other provocations - but in particular he has weakened the government (which was doing a good job before the country's EU accession) and the parliament. Are the people to get rid of the very same MPs they elected two years ago just because they won't obey Basescu?... Now he's initiated a debate about the introduction of a first past the post electoral system, instead of concentrating on the more important task of strengthening all the projects that were begun before accession to the EU: the reform of the justice system, the battle against corruption, securing the country's borders, extending its infrastructures. If Basescu and his opponents want to achieve these things they must now draw closer and agree on some form of cohabitation so that the country can return to normal government." (21/05/2007)

» ir a la página de inicio (enlace externo, Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Rumania
Todos los textos disponible de » Klaus Brill

Tibor Kis comments on the results of the referendum in Romania: "Traian Basescu is armed with more power and legitimacy for his next confrontations with the opposition. It faces the bitter realisation that its initiative for a referendum has backfired. However the referendum hasn't really changed the balance of power. Not even Basescu truly believes what he claims: that this is a new beginning for Romania. What Basescu hails as a second turning point - the amendment of the constitution, the adoption of a lustration law for reviewing the communist past, the battle against the oligarchy - appears to be just a bluff. His declarations are better interpreted as threats against the opposition. His power boosted by the election results, Basescu now wants to get back at the opposition." (21/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, húngaro)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Rumania
Todos los textos disponible de » Tibor Kis

Tariq Modood is professor of sociology, politics and public policy at the University of Bristol and the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship. He considers that a developed view of multiculturalism can complement democratic citizenship and denounces a tendency in Europe to "argue as if the logic of the national and the multicultural are incompatible. Partly as a result, many Europeans have come to think of multiculturalism as antithetical to rather than as a reformer of national identity. ... it does not make sense to encourage strong multicultural or minority identities and weak common or national identities; strong multicultural identities are a good thing - they are not intrinsically divisive, reactionary or subversive - but they need the complement of a framework of vibrant, dynamic, national narratives and the ceremonies and rituals which give expression to a national identity." (17/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, inglés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Integración, » Europa
Todos los textos disponible de » Tariq Modood

In an interview conducted by Dominique Berns, the American economist Robert Ayres ponders how to reconcile economic growth and energy-saving. "If we project ourselves 40 or 50 years into the future, we can, from a technological point of view, envisage a scenario with low energy intensity, maybe even non-nuclear, in which the consumption of hydrocarbons and greenhouse gas could be reduced by 90%. The problem lies in changing from one model to another. .. We can manage, I believe, by following the road taken by Denmark and the Nordic countries. This implies turning to renewable energies far more efficiently than most countries do today; the use of public transport, car-sharing and cycling to replace most cars and trucks on the roads today; and the struggle against energy wasting, especially the heat produced by electric power stations." (21/05/2007)

» informaciones adicionales (enlace externo, francés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Medio ambiente, » Energía, » Consumidor, » Global
Todos los textos disponible de » Robert Ayres, » Dominique Berns

German Chancellor and current EU President Angela Merkel clashed with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the subject of human rights at the EU-Russia summit which took place on May 17-18 in Samara. Although the summit was not very productive, Leopold Unger welcomes the fact that the EU adopted a hard line against Russia: "In Samara [Putin] was forced to hear what he should have been told very clearly long ago: that the EU will not submit to blackmail. Not only because - as with the three musketeers - solidarity is one of the pillars on which the EU is founded, in matters both great and small, but above all because Russia's blackmail tactics would just go on and on, as recent European history has shown... As [former Polish Foreign Minister] Rotfeld pointed out, Europe needs Russia, but Russia needs Europe even more. Now we must convince Russia of this. It's a question of time and of unity within Europe - true unity." (21/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, polaco)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Ampliación de la UE, » Rusia
Todos los textos disponible de » Leopold Unger

France's new rightwing president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has appointed Bernard Kouchner, the socialist co-founder of Médecins sans Frontières, as foreign minister. The journalist Neil Clark considers this "The latest illustration of a cross-party alliance of neoconservatives and liberal interventionists that is already entrenched in both the US and Britain. ... For Kouchner, international law is an anachronism to be overridden with impunity. 'To change the law, you sometimes have to break the law' is one of his favourite sayings. Despite having served as UN special representative in Kosovo, Kouchner seems to have scant regard for its charter and the way it enshrines the sovereign equality of all its members. ... Instead of a world of equal states respecting each other's sovereignty, Kouchner prefers the 'right of interference' by western powers, if necessary by military force. But, after a decade of western vigilantism of the type Kouchner favours, the results have not been encouraging from a human rights perspective." (21/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, inglés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política interior, » Francia
Todos los textos disponible de » Neil Clark

François-Xavier Piétri evaluates the new French government presented on Friday, May 18th. "The government concocted by Nicolas Sarkozy and his Prime Minister [Fraçois Fillon]... has a new design that indicates a fundamental political evolution. Firstly, promises have been kept -parity and a reduced team- but above all, the Head of State has acted as a skilful tactician and gained points on legislative ground by opening up to the centre and the left [notably naming Bernard Kouchner as Minister of Foreign Affairs] and by handing over for the first time a regalian ministry to someone from an immigrant background [Rachida Dati as Minister of Justice], who is also a woman. ... However, the most difficult has yet to be achieved: the combustive ingredients have to be made to work together without exploding." (21/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, francés)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Francia
Todos los textos disponible de » François-Xavier Pietri

Several people, including three German soldiers, died in a suicide bombing in Kundus in northern Afghanistan. Before the attack, the north of the country, where the German soldiers are stationed, was regarded as relatively peaceful in comparison with the country's war-torn south. Bernard Imhasly comments: "With these acts of sabotage, suicide attacks and bombings the war in Afghanistan increasingly resembles that in Iraq, regardless of occupied areas and territorial zones of influence. While the Taliban has its main zones of influence in the south and east of the country, and NATO troops are inflicting heavy defeats on the enemy there - in the province of Paktia alone over 100 Taliban are reported to have been killed on the weekend - the demoralising impact of the second front's acts of sabotage threatens to help the Taliban's cause politically and thus even out the overall picture of the war. There can be no doubt that with these tactics the Taliban aims to hit its opponent where it hurts most, for Germany appears to be the country with the lowest level of political tolerance for the death of its own soldiers." (21/05/2007)

» ir a la página de inicio (enlace externo, Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Relaciones internacionales, » Política de seguridad / Crisis / Guerras, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Bernard Imhasly

The economist Franco Bruni considers the Milanese bank Unicredit's acquisition of the Roman bank Capitalia which has just created the second biggest European group. Unicredit, which could have associated itself with the French bank Société Général, preferred to create a big Italian group entirely controlled by Italians. "Some defenders of Italianness might have been distressed by this alliance with a French group, but it would have been a step ahead for the European single market. It is nonetheless easier to marry a Roman with property in Sicily even if a lot of reorganising needs to be done. ... Political and administrative authorities have a duty to regulate and survey a big bank in the general interest and the interest of the bank itself. They will also have to ensure that the dimension of the new establishment doesn' t reduce competition and that relations with clients and the markets are proper and transparent while risk management is fair to guarantee liquidity and solvability." (21/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, italiano)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Empresa, » Italia
Todos los textos disponible de » Franco Bruni

Friedrich Schiller's historical drama "Wallenstein", which director Peter Stein is staging in a ten-hour production in an old factory in Berlin's Neukölln district, has 7,500 verses. Esther Slevogt writes that Klaus-Maria Brandauer is wonderful in the leading role, but she was otherwise unimpressed. "Peter Stein wants to invent a new kind of realism and presents a finely chiselled naturalism that includes artificial snow draped over the scenery, through which children romp and military bands march. At the same time he interlocks multiple layers of representation in an almost structuralist composition: the Defenestration of Prague; Schiller's take on the Thirty Years' War, as well as his own; perceptions of Schiller and his relevance for our world, which is once again entering a new age. In this interpretation, which shows the personal dynamics behind all political acts and the private drama behind all historical acts, the woodcut-like bogeymen created by today's media collapse. But this attempt to update Schiller by taking him literally nonetheless fails owing to the conservatism of the aesthetic approach." (21/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, alemán)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Escenarios, » Alemania
Todos los textos disponible de » Esther Slevogt

The popular Polish rock and jazz musician Tymon Tymanski and his band Tymon & The Transistors have just released their new album "Don't Panic! We're From Poland". Talking to Jacek Cieslak, Tymanski comments that unlike Western rock musicians, most Polish rock musicians still lead the wild rock and roll life. "The Poles lack discipline. They still haven't grasped the spirit of the revolution of the 1960s, when egocentric artists and art dictators lost influence and a collective of artists emerged... Both rock and roll and jazz are based on teamwork... Lou Reed has been practising Tai Chi for several years now and Bowie and Jagger live like saints. This requires professionalism and a quest for uninterrupted development. But our boys still haven't understood this. I like to drink and chase the girls every now and then too, but when you reach a certain age you have to go beyond that and try to help, not just take. You can't babble on about a moral revolution and stay in the swamp at the same time." (21/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, polaco)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Música, » Polonia
Todos los textos disponible de » Tymon Tymanski, » Jacek Cieslak

The journalist Paolo d'Agostini, present at the Cannes Film Festival, has seen the collage of short films made by thirty-five of the most famous directors from around the world to celebrate the festival's 60th anniversary. The journalist regrets that this homage to cinema didn't manage to really shine. "The authors came to meet up with the public without having seen the whole collage of one another's contributions entitled 'To Each His Own Cinema'. Like a flower in the button hole of the festival's 60th birthday party suit, it was the wish of the Gilles Jacob, the eternal president. For this occasion the given theme was the cinema as a darkened theatre from which deep reflection emerges on film as a language of emotion, very deep even … . It turned out to be mostly homage to film tinted with nostalgia and seen from an archaeological angle." (21/05/2007)

» ir a la página de inicio (enlace externo, La Repubblica)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Película, » Francia
Todos los textos disponible de » Paolo D'Agostini

The Portuguese newspaper regrets the decision made by the Minister of Culture not to allow the opening up of the tomb of the first king of Portugal Afonso Henriques buried in Coimbra. "The risk of damaging the tomb's stone and the bones has been the argument used by the Minister. The University of Coimbra [that proposed to carry out several studies on the king's remains] has already disputed the decision which they consider is a political decision. And what if the bones weren't Afonso Henriques'? That is a risk that a modern country needs to take. It was taken in Spain where it was the State itself which paid for the study of Christopher Columbus's bones. And in France, where Joan of Arc's alleged bones were discovered to be someone else's. This is the difference between truth and myth. The Portuguese are thus loosing out. The study of the king's bones would allow the details of the smaller picture to be known - his size, illnesses, etc.- which would have the advantage of reviving interest in the bigger picture, in History." (19/05/2007)

» ir al artículo completo (enlace externo, portugués)
Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Historia, » Ciencia / Investigación, » Portugal