A sensation has been caused in Germany by Schröder’s decision to submit himself to a vote of confidence in the Bundestag, with his announcement that he himself would abstain in the vote, and his invitation to the president of the SPD, Franz Müntefering, and MP’s of the party to do likewise, in such a way as to make the fall of the government inevitable. Schröder’s invitation has aroused protests within the SPD, with the allegation that it is anti-constitutional. “ If other proofs were needed of the fact that the red-green coalition has difficulties in harmonizing what is desirable at the political level with what is admissible at the political (and constitutional) level, here is probably what is the last great objective of Chancellor Schröder: ending the legislation well in advance. The preparations in this sense are taking increasingly absurd forms. Evidently the perspiration that beads the foreheads of Schröder and Müntefering is not due just to the current heat wave“, comments the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (30/6). “ People are wondering how the Chancellor wishes the failed vote of confidence on Friday to go down with the majority coalition, without simultaneously disqualifying himself as the candidate as leader for re-election“. And writing in Die Welt, Konrad Adam comments: “ A federal government that at a decisive moment acts in such a way as to abandon the majority it has so far obtained, does not seem very credible… A Chancellor who has to organize a failed vote of confidence with such a fanfare arouses the suspicion that he is reciting a part. […] The government may also be in crisis: the first to become aware of this are the Greens and the SPD. But the Constitution is not in crisis. It must be protected from the rash way it which it is now being treated“. A nuclear fusion plant in France, i.e. a new type of “clean” energy, alternative to nuclear fusion, is the news given prominent front-page coverage in the French Catholic daily La Croix of 29/6. “Thanks to the strong cohesion of the European Union says the paper -, France will benefit from the realization at Cadarache (Bouches-du-Rhône) of the international project of the ITER experimental nuclear fusion reactor”. In a comment by Dominique Quinio on the construction of the nuclear reactor (a project involving the EU, Russia, China, Japan, the USA and South Korea), the editorialist notes that in this case “European solidarity has played a fundamental role, enabling France to emerge as the victor and not the Japanese, who had the backing of the USA”. “ Scientific and technological research observes Quinio is what France and Europe (France and Europe) wish to invest in as a way of reviving employment. In this field, the hand played by the EU and its alliances has proved victorious, even though the dissenting voices continue to be heard about the lack of any possible short-tern results of ITER (many years will be needed before the experimentation begins to pay off), about the decidedly nuclear option of France’s energy policy, and the impact of the huge investments needed for the plant, to the detriment of other types of energy…Objections which need to be taken into account. All paths need to be explored, none excluded. The search for a clean and enduring source of energy is of capital importance for the future, in view of the changes caused by the gas emissions that are responsible for the greenhouse effect and that are generating the exhaustion of petrol resources. Challenges that know no frontiers need to be met by responses without frontiers”. The news story of the day in Spain (30/6) is the final approval of the law on speedy divorces, which eliminates the need for prior separation. “The law says El Paìs on its front page can be applied to all the processes in course, including those pending without judicial solution. It eliminates separation as the obligatory first step and eliminates the need to cite any motivation (such as infidelity, alcoholism or the end of marital cohabitation) to obtain the dissolving of the marriage. It also permits the shared assignment of the children, even if there is no agreement between the parents”. “It is undeniable comments an editorial inside the same paper reserved for “opinions” that the progress in the equality between men and women has also been translated into a greater involvement of the fathers in domestic affairs and in their attention to children, even though the imbalance is still manifest. That’s why the reform aims expressly as voluntarily shared co-responsibility. It is clear that this juridical solution, which ought to be the majority option between responsible persons, cannot function without a balanced distribution of the complex tasks entailed in the bringing up of children”. “Frankness on Iraq”, is the title of an editorial in the British daily The Times of 28/6, in which the paper maintains that “the need to remain [in Iraq] needs to be argued more clearly”, also on the basis of the “terrorist carnage that continues to shed blood on the streets of Iraq”.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1401 N.ro relativo : 50 Data pubblicazione : 01/07/05
