“Three appointments with the ballot box” : that’s the title of the editorial that the Spanish daily “ LA VANGUARDIA” of 28/3 dedicated to the elections held in recent days in Ukraine, in some German Länder and in Israel. “In the space of a few hours – writes the paper’s editor in chief JOSÉ ANTICH – three electoral processes took place in three areas as different in character as they are geographically far apart”. In Ukraine, argues Antich , “we will have to see whether they will be able to overcome old disputes and form an anti-Russian government”. In Germany, he points out, “the grand coalition headed by Chancellor Merkel has emerged reinforced from these regional elections; this implies the first electoral confirmation of the government that has ruled over Germany since November and also corresponds to the country’s political and economic climate”. In Israel, on the other hand, “there can be no doubt about the victory” of Olmert, “but what still remain in doubt are the alliances that may be forged to help give stability to the region”. Another Spanish daily EL PAÌS analyses instead what happened last week in Belarus, with the victory of Lukascenko, the accusations of electoral fraud and the popular protests. According to the paper’s editorialist, “Lukascenko embodies a Jurassic regime utterly refractory to the democratic idea. And Belarus is not the Ukraine, where the first free parliamentary elections have just been held in an orderly fashion. The press is controlled by a dictatorial apparatus that recreates a cult of personality inspired by Stalinism. The opposition is weak and fragmented”. However, concludes the daily, with the mass demonstrations of recent days “at least a start is being made”: “The Belorussians, who wait outside the Polish frontier and dream of belonging to a democratic universe within the confines of Europe, deserve that the support promised to them in recent days by the Western powers does not remain empty words”. In Germany discussion continues about the results of the administrative elections in four Länder. The most obvious result of the polls was the high abstention. Stephan Hebel comments as follows in the Frankfurter Rundschau (28/3): “ The low voter turnout is not necessarily a reason to intone a requiem for the death of democracy. There are banal reasons for it, from the bad weather to the snares” of the electoral systems . “Most of the electorate failed to see in any coalition the will or determination to introduce any real change and sought refuge in the hope that the total weight of the two large parties would produce the miracle. Now, the first disappointment about the red-black coalition, together with a long-standing disenchantment about politics altogether, may have contributed to the low voter turnout, in spite of the regional factors. It would be better if the parties were to stop ignoring this process – not least in their own interest“. Writing in Die Welt , Nikolaus Blome comments: “ The repercussions are always the same: the politicians react with consternation – the customer does not want the product, so the customer must go to the doctor. Explanations and diagnoses are immediately cobbled together, and garnished with invocations of the duty to vote. […] “The Germans were tired of voting, but why? Perhaps because they are satisfied and well informed? Or because they are fed up with the system, with Hartz IV (the reforms planned to put the country back on its feet), with globalization and with ‘those above us’? Since the mid-1980s, ever since participation in the elections began to decline, political scientists and politicians have done nothing but quarrel” . Errore. L’argomento parametro è sconosciuto. The interest of the French press in the demonstrations against the CPE inevitably continues. “ Waiting for Chirac“, headlines “ La-Croix” (30/03), over a front-page article signed by Antoine Fouchet . “While a new day of mobilization against the CPE is planned for 4 April – says the editorialist – the President of the Republic ought to intervene in the days ahead to resolve the conflict. All eyes are now focused on him, the President. After two million people took to the streets on Tuesday 28 March to demonstrate against the contract of first employment, and after dialogue seemed to have been definitively broken off between the parties in the dispute and the Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, the question of the conflict now lies firmly in the hands of the Head of State“, who according to his closest aides ought to express himself on the matter in the next few days, though no doubt only after having sought the opinion of the Constitutional Council. Chirac will thus respond to the appeals that opposition and government had made to him to intervene on the question. “ The trades unions – writes Fouchet – had asked him to solemnly request, as the Constitution authorises him to do, for a new deliberation from Parliament on the law that created the CPE” but Chirac has chosen to play for time; “ it seems, in other words, he had decided to apply this golden rule to the conflict over the CPE” . By doing so “ Jacques Chirac will not only shield himself from the crisis, but will try to handle the situation with pragmatism, caution and prudence. Since they have appealed to him, the trades unions have given him a preponderant role“.
