The German press continues to discuss the liberation of the German hostages held by kidnappers for some three months. Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Wolfgang Günther Lerch (4/5) comments: “ Perhaps it is more difficult to negotiate with kidnappers urged by religious or ideological motives than with mere criminals: in either case we are dealing with delinquents. And in general they are just as interested in money as common gangsters: the experience of other non-oriental countries demonstrates this. The surprising conclusion and happy ending of the latest kidnappings of Germans in Iraq, whose circumstances were concealed from public opinion for good reasons, will probably arouse a debate about how in future to handle events of this kind in this country. The probability that in future other foreigners, whether Germans or not, will be kidnapped anew, is far from reduced. […] The current situation in Iraq is not easy to describe. Is it a country that is disintegrating or has its reconstruction really begun? No less than four months were needed to form a new government. There are those who say that the Mesopotamia liberated from Saddam Hussein is tottering on the brink of a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis, or is already enmeshed in a violent conflict of this type. There are those who doubt whether Iraq can be maintained as a single country; in America people are already pondering on the possibility of subdividing it into three parts, if the original option of a unified State should fail to have any prospects. Perhaps they are not serious in thinking of this: but it clearly increases the general uncertainty of the situation “. The front pages of the French dailies are dominated by the “affaire Clearstream” which has involved the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, and placed at risk the future of his government. The Clearstream scandal dates back to 2004. An anonymous tip off accused the minister Nicolas Sarkozy and other politicians of having secret accounts in a financial institution in Luxembourg and that these accounts were used to collect slush funds and kickbacks thanks to the sale of some French frigates to Taiwan in 1991. “ One thing is certain – comments Francois Ernenwe on the front page of the French Catholic daily La Croix (3/5) – France is going through a period of total confusion, whose logic and effects will have to be defined once the judiciary has drawn its conclusions. The credibility of politicians and also of journalists is at stake”. According to the author of the editorial, “ the episode is especially ‘climatic’ in nature. In a period of suspicions, everything is transformed into evidence of guilt” but “ it should be recalled that suspicions are not proofs and as things stand today the Clearstream affair still remains wholly to be demonstrated. Unfortunately, alas, everything may seem credible when a pessimistic climate reigns“. The English Catholic weekly “ The Catholic Herald” (21/4) carried a banner headline “ The bishops ask the government to abandon nuclear weapons“. “ The Catholic Church in Britain – writes Fraddy Gray – has asked the government to abandon its plan of investing” a considerable sum of money to boost the country’s nuclear missile system and to “ devolve the sum to the poor” instead. Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue of Lancaster, head of the Department for International Relations of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has explained: “ I don’t think nuclear weapons can be the response to the difficulties our country is going through and, besides, the use of nuclear weapons against the civilian population cannot have any justification”. The sum allocated by the government is – in the view of the English episcopate – disproportionate. “ These funds – continues the bishop – could be allocated to help the poor and the disadvantaged“. “ Bishop O’Donoghue – says the article – echoes a communiqué of the bishops declaring that the use of weapons of mass destruction is a crime against God and against humanity and as such must never happen“. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi’s rejection of an appeal to him to present himself for re-election as President of the Republic of Italy – now that his seven-year term is expiring – has had a big impact on public opinion in the country and was widely covered on all the front pages of the Italian dailies of 4/5. Europa carried the headline: “ Yet another lesson from the President“. “ The motivation with which – says the unsigned editorial – Ciampi has signalled his unwillingness to serve another term should be borne in mind: there is a republican convention that does not permit any person to occupy posts of such importance for an anomalous period… how many leaders, either of the centre-right or centre-left, would have been capable of similar rigour? How many would not have succumbed to the temptation to profit from the weakness of the parties? How many will take to heart this latest lesson of the President?“.
