The left-wing daily L´Unità sees Sarkozy's break with the centralist state policies of Gaullism as his main achievement. "The parliament in Strasbourg likes this European, Europeanist, and Europe-enthusiast Sarkozy. He goes down well because the European model has survived and defied America's supremacy. The welfare state and social market economy have been brought down from the dusty attic again. This has all been possible because at last the Community has a leader rather than a notary president. ... At the height of the crisis Sarkozy has seized the reins and revived Europe. ... The task of upholding the flag and culture of European reformism has fallen to a politician from the right-wing ranks. It takes a 'good old socialist' as [Germany's MEP for the SPD] Martin Schulz has said. That that man's name is Sarkozy and his party the UPM [Union for a Popular Movement] should give Europe's entire Left food for thought." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Gianni Marsilli

In a guest article for the liberal daily Mladá fronta DNES Czech President Václav Klaus criticises the "crazy" suggestions of his French counterpart for overcoming the crisis on the financial markets. "Those who were fortunate enought not to have lived under communism should not succumb to the fatal fallacy that central planning can eliminate crises. ... This idea ... is a misconception. ... Crises were always used by irresponsible politicians as an excuse for massive state intervention in the economy. Popular fear gives politicians a blank cheque. ... Let us try to revive trust in the banking and financial system. But let us not attempt to erect new, artificial systems that are directed even more than before against a normally functioning market. ... Sarkozy's proposals (and also those of [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel) will not lead to a 'new capitalism.' What they really represent is a return to 'old socialism'." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka finansowa, » Europa, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Václav Klaus

The business newspaper Handelsblatt thinks Sarkozy's plans go too far. "The great European state leader Nicolas Sarkozy is really getting into the swing of things. ... Conservative politicians like Jean-Claude Juncker or José Barroso have been so thrilled with the crisis management of the presiding chairman of the Council of the European Union and French leader Nicolas Sarkozy that they were already trying to think up ways of extending his term in office at the head of the EU into the new year. ... But now success seems once again to have gone to Sarkozy's head. ... Sovereign wealth funds with investments in key industries? And that coming from leading conservative politicians of all people. What on earth will come next? How about a central planning authority, preferably one for the whole of Europe. It is high time to bring Super-Sarko back down to earth. The banks are in dire straits, state investments are necessary for a transitional period. But ... nationalising entire sectors of industry, however 'strategic' that may be, we'd better leave that to the Russians." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Polityka finansowa, » Europa

The Spanish daily El País criticises Sarkozy's proposal to shore up key sectors using national funds. "The speech addressed to the MEPs was a further example of Sarkozy's own peculiar perception of politics and the economy, which tallies with France's interventionist model. In every part of his speech one could detect his overpowering urge to lead Europe with initiatives that so far have failed and at the same time reaffirm the French interventionist model in companies. Sarkozy's independent defence funds are not a response to the crisis but merely another example of Sarko capitalism. The proposal from Paris and Berlin to tighten controls on so-called tax havens is a more interesting idea, but in this area we will only see results in the long term." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka UE, » Polityka finansowa, » Polityka gospodarcza, » Francja, » Europa

The annual debate on the state budget is currently taking place in Spain. A standard issue in the debate is the degree of independence of the autonomous regions. The conservative daily ABC criticises the fact that a growing number of MPs give their regional background precedence over their Spanish nationality. "Spain is not breaking up, but the cracks are showing. The most prominent example of this is the [autonomous northern Spanish province of] Navarra. The Unión del Pueblo Navarra [UPN] party was founded in 1991 to prove that it was indeed possible to combine loyalty to one's region with loyalty to the nation, that a state consisting of autonomous regions can function and that one can be very Spanish and very Navarrish at the same time - as was typical in this region. But seventeen years down the road we can see that this is impossible, ... that one has to choose between the two. One must first be a citizen of Navarre and then a citizen of Spain, as [the president of Navarra ] Miguel Sanz [UPN] has demanded of his MPs in Congress. And things will not stop here. The MPs from Murcia, Castile-La Mancha and Catalonia are facing the same dilemma."    (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Ruchy społeczne, » Hiszpania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » José María Carrascal

The dispute over the Muhammad cartoons by artist Kurt Westergaard which were published in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten has entered a new round. A Danish court has postponed the deportation of a man who, according to information gathered by Denmark's security police force (PET), threatened the cartoonist. Jyllands-Posten criticises the decision: "Kurt Westergaard must now go on living in fear. At the same time as we are experiencing the omnipresence of terror here in Denmark, a former PET boss is spreading the naïve message that we should seek to understand and enter into dialogue with the terrorists - the Islamic fascists - and their ideological background. We should combat them with police initiatives. Terrorists should be confronted with resolute action and opposition, not with understanding." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka bezpieczeństwa / Kryzys / Wojna, » Styl życia, » Dania

The Czech Republic's conservative government under Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek of the conservative Civic Democratic Party (ODS) faces a vote of no confidence today. The chief editor of the conservative daily Lidové noviny comments: "Today the political 'murder' of Mirek Topolánek is to take place. ... It is possible that he will survive it, but Topolánek is nonetheless a dead man. He has become the target of concentrated hatred. Not only [the social democratic opposition leader Jiří] Paroubek and [his internal party adversary, the mayor of Prague Pavel] Bem but also [State President Václav] Klaus and the regional leaders of the ODS party [who suffered a defeat in the elections last weekend]  are all after his head. If his fall doesn't come today it will come in December at the ODS party conference. ... The real question now is whether Topolánek's 'murder 'would be a good thing for the Czech Republic. No, but only because a government consisting of his 'gravediggers' would be even worse."   (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Czechy
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Veselin Vačkov

In the left-wing liberal daily The Guardian former Minister for Europe Denis MacShane puts the argument for immigration to Britain: "There are 300,000 'non-Brit' sudents at our universities providing an economic lifeline to stretched university finance as well as creating new cohorts of young men and women who, one hopes, will appreciate their stay in Britain and become economic and political friends of Britain when they go home. ... We create new barriers and type-cast 'non-Brits' as the unwelcome other at our peril. ... Britain has to be open for business, for ideas, for people. The immigration debate as defined by the Tories, the [daily newspaper] Daily Mail, [the interests organisation] Migration Watch and the [right-wing extremist] BNP [British National Party] is about shutting down Britain." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Migracja, » Wielka Brytania
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Denis MacShane

With reference to the financial crisis Sever Voinescu analyses the role of morality and greed in the capitalist system for the weekly Dilema Veche. "We have been taught that the market - if not positively immoral - is certainly depraved. We have been taught that in the market there is only one thing that can stimulate competition: profit. Where should morality come from in this hard struggle? If you read Marx and Engels' definition of capitalism that is indeed how it is. But if you look at the theory of capitalism of someone like Max Weber, you discover something completely different. [There you learn] that ethics is the key to the performance of capitalism, to the flow of all money, goods and services, which ... only function if there is trust. Yet trusts depends on a sense of ethics. The American crisis has become so widespread because trust in the system has taken a severe battering. Someone somewhere was telling profound lies, so now all 'market actors' have become mistrustful. ... What has happened now is the most obvious proof that greed is definitely a bad thing. Greed, unrestrained by any law - for we can no longer speak of any moral norms in the market - is what is chiefly responsible for the crisis, which has had a grave impact worldwide. To blame are those who ... left the system unregulated so that they could make millions of dollars speculating on the stock market. To blame are those who saw this tsunami approaching and kept quiet. To blame are those who told convenient lies in their company reports. ... In short all those people are to blame who thought greed was a good thing, for that is what capitalism is." (22/10/2008)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, rumuński)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka finansowa, » Światopogląd, » Europa, » Cały świat
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Sever Voinescu

In an article in the business newspaper NRC Handelsblad Rob Wijnberg examines modern man and the constant need to make decisions: "This positive concept of freedom makes it clear why, faced with an increasing number of choices, people feel less and less free. For the more choices there are, the less they differ from one another. And the smaller the difference between the various options, the less reason there is to choose one over the other. ... This has been compounded by the advent of mass media, in which 1001 truths converge and compete with each other. ... The stress of having to make decisions is ... not just a matter of luxury or excess but also a question of upbringing, technology and the spirit of the times. The young people of today are growing up in a world in which almost everyone more or less agrees with one's parents, with the politicians and with other people. This produces less pronounced preferences and also a less pronounced identity than would sometimes be useful in a society which presents one with a new choice to make each hour of the day."  (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Filozofia, » Holandia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Rob Wijnberg

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück and his French counterpart Eric Woerth want to have Switzerland put on the black list of tax havens compiled by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Swiss daily Corriere del Ticino writes: "Berlin accuses Switzerland of not being cooperative enough over tax matters. The conservative parties in Switzerland and the banking association ABS have vigorously rejected this accusation and have declared the application to have Switzerland put on the black list unjustified. The list also includes Monaco, Liechtenstein and Andorra. But there are critical voices at home as well - the Socialist party, for example, which has always been against tax evasion and said that the country's tax arrangements cast it in a bad light. The black list is interpreted as a warning for the conservative parties. It damages the reputation of the Swiss financial market, which has already been tarnished by the rescue manoevre of the UBS." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka finansowa, » Podatki, » Szwajcaria

The two most powerful trade unions in Greece have once again called for a general strike. The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung fears that Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis will never manage to get things under control: "A good example is the opposition to the privatisation of the hopelessly indebted airline Olympic Airways, The planes that the airline uses for its Balkans routes are something for aviation history enthusiasts. Since the EU Commission ruled that Olympic must repay state subsidies of more than 800 million euros because these run counter to competition, the airline is threatened with bankruptcy. But its several thousand employees are pressurising the state to prolong the agony. There has been little sign in Prime Minister Karamanlis's second term of office of him making good on his promise to reform the state. Maybe Karamanlis should read Mrs Thatcher's memoirs to find out how to do this - and where one can go wrong." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Polityka gospodarcza, » Grecja

The political representatives of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia will take to the streets if necessary to protest against a school textbook in which all the place names are given in Slovak only. Such a protest would be designed to draw the West's attention to the problems of the Hungarian minority. Premier Robert Fico has refused to withdraw the textbook. The liberal daily Sme criticises the plans of the Hungarian minority's representatives: "The Hungarian minority has not grasped that improving their situation does not depend on what the West thinks. ... The minority can only defend their rights if they manage to convince a majority of Slovak society, the media and politicians of their cause. Public protests for the 'Western media' are surely inappropriate for this purpose." (22/10/2008)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, słowacki)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Polityka wewnętrzna, » Węgry, » Słowacja
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Peter Morvay

A Dutch community has decided to bring an alcohol teacher into schools to discourage children from drinking. Writing in the daily De Volkskrant columnist Jan Mulder says this is ridiculous: "The point is not to introduce young people to nice French wines and to teach them to enjoy a bottle of Chateau Talbot. The teacher is there is keep children away from alcohol. But it's really a shame. A wasted opportunity. Quite apart from the fact that teaching children to read and write and do maths should be the major priority, will alcohol lessons really help to stop children drinking? They may in fact do the opposite. Children in sixth and seventh grade sit in school listening to a teacher talking about the dangers of beer and about brain cells dying off. If I were a pupil I would think: 'Everyone around me drinks beer, so it can't be all that bad. The teacher is exaggerating. I'd never have thought of buying a crate of beer to celebrate my birthday.' Next time round, guys." (22/10/2008)

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Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Zdrowie, » Holandia
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jan Mulder

Polish President Lech Kaczyński  has invited 55 fellow politicians and their partners to Warsaw for a ball in November. Now there are rumours that the event will be cancelled because many of the invited guests - including the French President Nicolas Sarkozy - do not want to accept the invitation. The daily Dziennik speculates: "So the president won't be giving a ball after all. And all because of Carla Bruni [the French president's wife]. She didn't want to travel all the way to cold Poland and convinced her husband to forget the dancing (perhaps she was just afraid that her husband would find Maryla Rodowicz [a Polish singer billed to perform at the ball] too enchanting)." (22/10/2008)

» Artykuł (Link zewnętrzny, polski)
Więcej z przeglądu prasy na temat » Stosunki międzynarodowe, » Muzyka, » Polska, » Europa
Wszystkie dostępne teksty » Jan Wrobel