German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have announced at a meeting in Yekaterinburg that they plan to step up economic cooperation between their countries. The press writes that while contracts running into the billions will improve relations, democratic reforms in Russia remain indispensable. Reforms secure the market As Russia’s biggest foreign investor [...]
Poland’s president designate Bronisław Komorowski will bring political stability to the country and clear the way for pressing reforms, commentators write, adding that his election may help overcome the divisions ailing Polish society. New president brings fresh prospects After the victory of Bronisław Komorowski in the Polish presidential elections the country should return to harmony [...]
In Poland’s presidential elections the government’s candidate Bronisław Komorowski attained 41 percent of the vote, falling short of an absolute majority. At 36 percent his Eurocritical challenger Jarosław Kaczyński still has a chance in the run-off vote on July 4, writes the press, and if elected could pose a threat to the liberal-conservative government. Not [...]
Following the Slovakian parliamentary elections last weekend the liberal-conservative parties have chosen Iveta Radičová to be the country’s first female head of government. The 53-year-old sociology professor is not in an enviable position, writes the leftist daily Pravda: “The future prime minister, who by nature is closer to liberal pioneer Ralf Dahrendorf than the former [...]
US President Barack Obama has described the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States. In an address to the nation he called for the country’s energy policy to be reoriented towards renewables. The business paper Hospodářské noviny agrees with his initiative: “It would [...]
The Slovenian Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that there would be no further referendum on the controversy of the “erased”. In 1992 many citizens of former Yugoslavia were taken off the registers of permanent residents because they had failed to apply for Slovenian citizenship by the deadline set by the government. Now the way has [...]
Romania’s government on Tuesday survived a vote of no confidence tabled by the Romanian opposition. Its package of drastic austerity measures will thus come into force in order to secure further installments of IMF emergency credits. The daily Gândul describes the planned cuts as tantamount to stealing from the population: “To pretend that the cuts [...]
The difficult political situation in Belgium after the elections could also have consequences for the European Union, writes the business paper Világgazdaság: “Belgium is not only the seat of most EU institutions, it has also long been a model for peaceably harmonising multifarious, often divergent interests. In this way it inevitably served as a model [...]
According to US experts Afghanistan possesses undiscovered mineral resources presumed to be worth more than a billion dollars. Exploiting these resources could lead the country out of its present poverty but also have negative consequences, writes the liberal daily La Stampa: “The mineral resources could turn Kabul into the Dubai of Central Asia. … Thanks [...]
Turkey has sharply criticised new UN sanctions against Iran and condemned the Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla. These are clear signs of Ankara’s reorientation, writes the daily Jyllands-Posten: “An ever-stronger Turkey with its sights on regional predominance and good connections to its Islamic neighbours is not only a key to the Middle East [...]
