The legislative elections in Russia, followed a day later by the kamikaze attacks at the heart of Moscow, monopolise the attention of the main international dailies. Steve Lee Myers, writing in the Herald Tribune (10/12), links the two events, and observes: “In Sunday’s elections, the Russian voters gave a convincing victory to the party in favour of the Kremlin, which committed itself to supporting Putin’s efforts to offer security and stability in Russia. But Tuesday’s bombs, like those that preceded them, highlighted the difficulties of Putin’s security forces in tackling and putting an end to the suicide attacks, even in the centre of Moscow, massively guarded by the police forces”. “Terrorism once again spills blood in the Russian capital two days after the electoral triumph of Putin’s party”, is the comment of Luigi Geninazzi in the Italian Catholic daily, Avvenire (10/12): “only a few days ago says the author of the article the European intelligence services warned their Russian colleagues of possible attacks by young kamikaze women trained by the Islamic faction of the Chechen guerrillas”. A “defeat” of the Russian “liberals”, on the other hand, is underlined by Natalie Nougayréde in Le Monde (10/12): “The setback of the liberals, fifteen years after glasnost and perestroika she writes may be explained by their division in response to a power which has acted like a steamroller in the mass media and in the courts, but also by their innumerable compromises and steps backwards, sometimes applauded by people in the West”. The “strong presidential character of the Russian political regime”, emphasises the French daily, thus emerges “reinforced” from this election, while the liberals must “undertake a reflection on what strategy to follow, in the new Russian political context”. According to La Croix (9/12), Russia voted “for the nationalists”, thanks to “a turning towards a patriotic, vindictive and populist right, which capitalised on public anger against the new rich, accused of having plundered the country”. Many comments in the German press are dedicated to the events surrounding the summit on the European Constitution. “What is immediately striking is the fact that Germany, France and Italy have agreed on the formula according to which there must not be an agreement “at any price”, points out the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (8/12). “The feeling is slowly growing that the Franco-German alliance has secretly abandoned the idea that with 25 or more members the EU may be something more than a wider free-trade area”. “In recent times, Chirac and Schröder have too often deluded themselves with the illusion that a compromise between the big powers in the EU is all that is needed to restore the old world to the right road”, comments the Süddeutsche Zeitung (10/12). “They will realise this when, at the end of the week, in Brussels, they will quarrel united for the European Constitution”. “While Schröder and Chirac agreed on their strategy in Paris yesterday, the protagonists were also sharpening their knives in the capital of Europe for the great battle on the Constitution”, notes Die Welt (10/12). The weekly news magazine Der Spiegel (8/12) also comments on the looming battle over the Constitution: “The outcome of the summit in Brussels is still open. If agreement on the Constitution should fail to be reached, even before the realization of enlargement to Eastern Europe, that would demonstrate the fact that a Union of 450 million Europeans is inflexible and incapable of acting. The virtually inevitable consequence would be a split in the EU. A European nucleus consisting of countries in favour of integration would try to advance the idea of a political union temporarily blocked by the Union as a whole”. Mario Soares writes in the Spanish daily La Vanguardia ( 7/12) that “the current geostrategic panorama in the world instils neither confidence nor security, on the contrary, one feels profound pessimism and a generalised sense of exasperation”. At the same time, he adds, “we are faced by a peaceful revolution about which we cannot be indifferent, seeing that it will have positive consequences in this world of ours which is so afflicted”. “Germany and Italy join together against Spain in the EU”. That’s the comment in El Periodico ( 8/12) with reference to the Spanish proposal not to modify the voting system agreed in the Treaty of Nice. Another Spanish daily, ABC” ( 8/12), comments, on the other hand, that “Aznar expects flexibility from Brussels”. The Spanish prime minister is convinced that with “intelligence, good will and flexibility” it will be possible to obtain an agreement on the system of voting in the European Council. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1156 N.ro relativo : 86 Data pubblicazione : 12/12/2003
