The Grand Coalition has been formed: the German press is now intent on analysing its future. Writing in the Frankfurter Rundschau (16/11), Wolfgang Storz comments as follows on the decision of the Merkel government to defer the most important decisions to the first half of 2006 : “It is revealing that the representatives of the economy consider this a weakness. For politics, on the other hand, this may represent a strong point. […] The times of the economy cannot and must not be those of politics, to which they are often prejudicial. The democratic political process has a need for time. It must balance different interests; it must consider the consequences of decisions for various protagonists. These are aspects that have little importance, or none at all, when it’s a case of decisions taken by a businessman. From this point of view, the agreement to postpone the structural issues and deliberately embrace this procrastination may be considered a sign of reasonableness and strength. It may be a signal of the fact that policy is no longer being dictated by events but is finding its own original times, suited to a democracy, and reconquering a piece of sovereignty it had lost”. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (17/11) focuses instead on the aspect relating to foreign policy: “The announcement [of the Merkel government] that it would preserve continuity in foreign policy forms part of the accessory rituals of a change of government. It must tranquillise and diffuse a feeling of predictability and reliability”. Nonetheless, the paper observes, “Clearly the relation with America needs to be restored to its rightful form”. Moreover, “the mistrust of small and new EU members in the Franco-German alliance… represents one of the liabilities of the Schröder/Fischer government… which needs to be corrected”. As regards relations with Russia too, “Frau Merkel will no longer forge the Paris-Berlin-Moscow axis, because this axis is detrimental to her image of Germany, repudiates her rhetoric on Europe and is harmful to her own interests”. And the weekly Der Spiegel (14/11) points out: “With tax increases and provisions for the containment of public expenditure, the red-black coalition is irritating the electorate. […] The 191-page agreement [on the formation of the coalition] is nothing but a bitter emergency programme for the recovery of the state finances. It provides the instructions for the most substantial tax hikes in recent years. It shows and this is the best that can be said of the programme how serious the situation of the country is”. Controversies on the educational reform and conflicts between Government and Church on financial questions have for days filled the pages of the Spanish press, especially after the big demonstration on 12 November, which brought thousands of people onto the streets of Madrid to protest against the proposed Law on Education (LOE). In its editorial entitled “The worst moment for Zapatero” La Razòn of 14/11 maintains that “the government must admit that it no longer has its finger on the pulse of society” and that “a volte-face is needed if it intends to respect the limits of minimum acceptance. The reverberations in Europe of Saturday’s protest rally in Madrid and the political agenda” are having the effect that the government is experiencing “the worst moment of its legislature”. According to La Vanguardia, on the other hand, Zapatero “has reacted smartly to the massive demonstration” announcing he would receive a delegation of the organizers of the protest. The Catalan paper says that there have been few gestures of this kind in the last quarter century, because “on various occasions millions of citizens took to the streets for various reasons but their protests were never heard”. The Abc of 15/11 points out that, as far as the government is concerned, “it remains clear that it has no intention of withdrawing” its bill on education. Yet “the most intelligent option for it would be to put on one side the existing text and open a negotiation between the parties and representatives of the educational sector” and “acknowledge the social clamour” that the bill is causing. An editorial in the daily El Periodico (15/11) with the title “The money of the Church” says that “Spain gives over 3,000 million euros per year to the Church and to Catholics schools. It is a privilege without comparison in Europe. A part of this aid 35 million euros subsidises the running costs of Spain’s own Church, which also enjoys by no means negligible tax exemptions. Yet the Spanish episcopate is incapable of financing itself…”. “Three crises and an idea” is the title of the editorial that the French Catholic daily “La Croix” (16/11) dedicates to urban violence and to President Chirac’s speech to the nation. The three crises are those of “sense, references and identity”. “To tackle them writes Dominique Gerbaud Chirac proposes a voluntary civilian service aimed at solidarity and formation. It’s a good idea, but it has a defect: its optional character”. In the view of the editorialist, in fact, “a real compulsory service, within a sporting, humanitarian, charitable and cultural association, would be a school of citizenship and a means to instil young people with sense, references and identity”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1431 N.ro relativo : 80 Data pubblicazione : 18/11/05
