Bruno Frappat’s editorial in La Croix of 20/12 reflects on the current political situation and enunciates three major concerns of our time: “France, Europe and the world. The first conducts itself with an indifference towards its own future that borders on laxity. It’s enough to consider her indifference to the total amount of the national debt”, towards which Frappat urges some rigour. Order is also hoped for in addressing European and national questions: “these systems cannot be allowed to proceed without controls”, writes Frappat, who poses the question: “What is the sense that our rulers wish to give to the future? What road do they propose to take?” New ideas are needed, says the editorial. “Our contemporaries are seeking not so much for figures, as for meaning, vision, prospects for the future and reasons for living. For too long politics have yielded to technical solutions and mere appetites. As 2006 approaches, the birth of a new language is to be hoped for”. Angela Merkel and her growing success in Europe, particularly during the recent summit in Brussels, are commented on by the German press. An editorial in Die Welt (21/12) says: “… even the most disenchanted observers have saluted a new star in Angela Merkel”. The Chancellor “… has found the right tone not to irritate France, nor place in discussion the independence of Germany. […] In short, London is seeing in the German Chancellor Angela Merkel a return to the age of Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who succeeded in re-uniting, under a common denominator, friendship with ten neighbouring countries, fidelity to America and reconciliation with Russia“ . “Now, after her first major debut in foreign policy, the Chancellor can tackle the challenges of the world political situation with greater confidence. In fact, Germany’s voice could now be heard with greater interest in the tangled crises of the Middle East. In this area the aggressive tone of Iranian president Ahmadinejad, the populist tribune and religious fanatic, is particularly alarming. With his appeal to the destruction of Israel, he has sent out dangerous signals. A new and more confident foreign policy, on the part of the federal Republic, could help to ensure that this unity give rise to a peaceful solution. Merkel’s success in Brussels is promising”. And in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung it is the Chancellor herself who speaks. She was interviewed by the paper. “I think the new German government exploited the room for manoeuvre at its disposal”, says Merkel commenting on the agreement reached during the summit. “But naturally we also worked on it beforehand, and even in the time I was in opposition I had forged a series of contacts. Moreover, this Council has given the new German government the chance to demonstrate that we take seriously the smaller countries and wish to involve them, without neglecting our relations with France and the other big European states. It’s a practice that has worked well. It leads me to hope that we can solve other difficult problems too”. The victory of Evo Morales, the first indigenous President of Bolivia, occupies the front pages of the Spanish press in recent days: “ Evo Morales will review the contracts of all Spanish businesses in Bolivia” is the shock headline carried by the Abc of 20/12. The paper’s editorial says this decision “places the country before a difficult political dilemma: knowing whether the fragile Bolivian democratic institutions will be able to survive the populist impetus that has swept the leader of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) to the Presidency of the Republic”. La Vanguardia also speaks of “unknowns” in deciding whether Morales “will assume the more moderate model of Brazilian President Lula da Silva or choose the more radical one of the Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, whose follower he claims to be. In any case, the obstacles that Evo Morales will have to face begin in the Senate, where the opposition enjoys an absolute majority”. Another Spanish daily El Paìs of 20/12 intervenes on the question of Islamic terrorism, maintaining that “ to criminalize those who peacefully profess the Islamic religion due to some fanatics would be a very grave error that would bring with it damaging consequences. Democratic societies, however, must be able to protect and defend themselves. The anti-terrorist policy that the European Union has just approved is a consequence of this. It is focused on the campaign against radicalisation and against the recruitment of youth in Islamic groups and on efforts to reinforce moderate Muslims”. In its editorial of 19/12 with the title “Al Qaeda in Spain” the Abc argues that “despite the fact that Spain has abandoned the international coalition that toppled Saddam Hussein and facilitated the transition of Iraq to democracy precarious and threatened by terrorism, but a democracy nonetheless our country has not only failed to liberate itself from the fundamentalist threat, but has even extended it in a twofold sense: first by being a privileged base for its international logistics, and second by being a constant target at the level of terrorist attacks”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1440 N.ro relativo : 89 Data pubblicazione : 23/12/05
