In Germany, and not only there, discussion continues about the results of the recent general elections and the hypothesis of a “grand coalition”. “ If the growing nervousness is anything to go by, then it’s clear for whom the grand coalition is more risky: for the SPD. The party is experiencing a long period of regained pride, but is already beginning to feel unease. Its leaders appear uncertain, even regarding the question of the chancellorship, a highly symbolic question“, writes Richard Meng in the Frankfurter Rundschau (28/9). He continues as follows: “ A coalition is legitimated in the last analysis only by its contents. At the present time, the programme can only be the renewal of the base and pillars of the democratic state. There can be no turning point in terms of market radicalism, still less of a left-wing agenda. What’s needed is to safeguard the base“. Writing in the sister paper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Georg Paul Hefty observes: “ In a future grand coalition, the SPD will undoubtedly represent the minor partner, which cannot determine the chancellor now but which is bound to aspire to the chancellorship in the near future. […] Therefore, even a reform of federalism obtained by a grand coalition will be great not for its own decisions, but rather for its repercussions, since the two major parties will be full of themselves. Simultaneously, the SPD will work to destroy the majority of the Union in the Bundesrat with the help of the future new rules. For the aim of a grand coalition it to ensure that there will be no other such coalition in the following legislature”. The comment of the weekly magazine Der Spiegel (26/9) is lapidary. In its cover story, it points out: “ After the unclear vote of the electors a war of nerves has begun to gain power. Angela Merkel is fighting for a grand coalition under her leadership. Gerhard Schröder wants to prevent this. The SPD party chief Müntefering gives him free rein: for how much longer?“. “ How to change without a revolution” is the title of an editorial in Time (3/10) on the results of the elections in Germany and on the situation of impasse determined after the ballot in which the two major parties emerged almost neck and neck. “ In the elections of 18 September writes Josef Joffe the message of the people was that no one had won“. After analysing the possible coalitions, all full of problems difficult to solve, Joffe concludes: “ In the end, Germany will have a government. But it won’t be definitive, because, no matter what coalition, it will be a shotgun wedding based not on affinities, but on desperation. The divorce will be there waiting in the wings, and so fresh elections will soon be held”. According to the commentator, “ Germany’s China is just behind the door, in the ‘new Europe’ just to the East, where productivity is almost as high as it is in Germany, but wages are a sixth of those in Berlin or Bavaria. Only the crazy would insist on the longevity of the next government, but those in the know are buying up German assets left and right“. “ The German nightmare” is the title of the editorial in The Economist, according to which “ the conclusion is that German voters are in the best of scenarios divided and in the worst hostile to further reforms”. In the view of the weekly, therefore, “ whatever the coalition, if one should emerge from the confusion, it’s improbable that it will prove strong and durable. The Germans are therefore destined, very probably, to return to the ballot box soon, and certainly long before the four year term of a normal legislature“. “ Debate on Turkey” is the title of a leader in La Croix (26/09) signed by Dominique Gerbaud, discussing the question on whether to support or not Turkey’s bid to enter the European Union. “ It’s a complex debate says Gerbaud and the majority of those who have adopted a precise position on this question have utterly no wish to understand the contrary reasons. It is a kind of watershed as if the future of France only depended on this problem. Let us hope that the long negotiations serve to prepare French public opinion for Turkey’s possible membership“. A court in Spain has issued the first sentence in the world on the terror attacks of 11 September. The case is given extensive coverage in the Spanish press on 27/9. In its editorial under the title “Lesser sentences for Al Qaeda” the Abc writes that “the sentence represents a very important precedent for international judicial action against Islamic terrorism but the results do not live up to some expectations”. According to El Mundo “we must not have the remotest doubt that Abu Dadah and the large majority of the condemned formed part of a cell dedicated to the propaganda of the Jihad, the funding of fundamentalist movements, and the recruitment of fanatics for Chechnya, Bosnia and Afghanistan”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1418 N.ro relativo : 67 Data pubblicazione : 30/09/05
