The issue of the Islamic headscarf, after the French national Assembly passed a law prohibiting its wearing in state schools, continues to be a focus of attention for the main international dailies. The Herald Tribune, in its edition of 11/2, dedicates a front-page headline to the question, “The ban on religious symbols in schools passed”. Elaine Sciolino, in the article in question, places the emphasis on the “deep resentment” aroused among Muslims by the new law and points out that the legislation not only bans “ ostentatious” religious symbols, but also includes a preamble in which “it is requested that the total equality, also in ‘co-education’, of all teachers, particularly in sport and physical education, be ‘protected’ and guaranteed in state schools”. A question posed by Le Monde (11/2) is what will happen to all the Moslem pupils who are thus debarred from attending state schools. The paper notes that “numerous excluded pupils” will simply stop going to school altogether. “There are no reliable statistics says the French daily but the testimony of various pupils shows especially the isolation in which they find themselves after their exclusion. Some hire private tutors to give them lessons at home, sometimes militants of Moslem associations. Enrolment in the National Centre of extension classes is another solution, but the cases in which pupils continue them beyond the age of 16 are rare”. A different hypothesis is that of Gabriella Sartori ( Avvenire), according to which Catholic schools in France “are making it known that in their schools anyone may freely manifest, also in the way they dress, their belonging [to Islam] (…). In other words: while a kind of […] multiethnic flight from state schools in France is in the offing, the most unexpected of paradoxes (or ironies) in history is simultaneously taking shape: in other words, the ‘liberté’, expelled from the lycées of the République (as if to say from its very home), seems to be finding a refuge in the house of what was, historically, always considered its most traditional ‘enemy’, namely schools run by the clergy”. The German press is devoting a lot of comment to the resignation of Schröder as president of the SPD. The Chancellor’s gesture, reached at the end of long-running disaffection within his party, is seen as a sign of crisis, because in Germany it is the tradition for the chancellor to be also president of the majority party. “ If Schröder loses the post of chancellor before or after the elections, or even in 2010, after his third term in office the SPD will be struck by an earthquake whose effects will long be felt. The generation of the party’s leaders, including the new party chief Münterfering represents, with few exceptions, the federal republic of the 1980s. After Schröder and Münterfering a new revolution in the SPD will have to take place“, writes Kurt Kister in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (9/2). “ At the present time, it’s still to be seen whether with the sacrifice of his presidency of the party, Schröder may rescue his reform package and save his post as chancellor“, observes Die Welt (9/2). The Frankfurter Allgemeine (11/2) is even more sceptical: “ Schröder’s hope of calming the waters by his renunciation of the presidency of the party was illusory. Indeed, his decision has given a new lease of life precisely to the Social Democrats who no longer accept the reformist policy in its entirety”. “ The chancellor drastically reduced” is the headline carried by the weekly “ Der Spiegel” (9/2), which dedicates its cover story to the event. “ A wave of anger has forced the chancellor to renounce his presidency of the party. What he intended to be a liberation, could be the beginning of the end of the process of reform. The watchwords favoured by the new chief of the SPDF, Münterfering, are clear: decelerating, blocking, subdividing“. The approval of the European Constitution occupies the front pages of El Periódico (10/2) which opens with the headline “France and Germany demand the EU Constitution by the end of this year”. The paper says that “ Chirac and Schröder are threatening to seek alternatives if no agreement is reached in 2004“. Spain and Poland, on the other hand, “ want to maintain the system of the division of powers negotiated at Nice, which grants them an influence in the EU similar to that of France and Germany”, points out the paper. The Munich conference on the Iraqi conflict is another question of interest to the Spanish press in recent days. El Periodico (8/2) reports the words of Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense, on the Iraqi conflict, according to which “in spite of errors, Iraq is advancing towards democracy”. According to Rumsfeld, “things are going well” in Iraq . Of a different view is German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer: “the military intervention has brought neither peace nor democracy”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1271 N.ro relativo : 11 Data pubblicazione : 13/02/04
