Eurozone Crisis: What Have the Dutch Ever Done for Us?
De Volkskrant, Amsterdam
In the current crisis, the Dutch tend to pontificate about the citizens of ill performing countries like Greece and Italy. But as recession now looms, they should keep in mind that their prosperity isn’t just due to their own virtuousness.
Peter de Waard
“What have the Romans ever done for us?”, asks John Cleese in the famous Monty Python satire Life of Brian to his resistance group. “The aqueduct”, whispers one. “And…sanitation”, another. “Roads.” “Irrigation.” “Medicine.” “Education.” “Wine.” “Clean water.” “Yes, but apart from aqueducts, sanitation, roads, irrigation, education, wine, medicine, clean water?” calls out a despairing Cleese. “Eh…public baths.”
A large proportion of Dutch people want to first get rid of the Greeks, then the Italians. And actually the Spanish and the Portuguese as well. Maybe it would be better for the French to leave the eurozone too. And the Belgians.
Since World War 2, there has never been so much stereotyping of European peoples as in the past weeks. The suggestion is that there is an unbridgeable culture gap between the hard working North Europeans and the lazy souls in the south.
The past is quickly forgotten. In 2004 and 2005, praise was heard from all over Europe for Spain and Ireland for having the most successful economies of the entire continent. The Netherlands could consider itself lucky to be associated with the Spanish wonder child and the Celtic Tiger. Spain, Portugal and Italy were at the heart of the new Europe.
When Netherlands was the paria of Europe
In the seventies, though, it was the Netherlands that was the pariah of Europe. In 1977, British weekly The Economist ran a cover on The Dutch Disease — the deindustrialization of the industrial sector and the squandering of income from natural resources, the gas from Slochteren, in favour of social provisions and leftist projects…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Politicians ‘Support New Govt to Rescue Their Pensions’
Rome, 18 Nov. (AKI/Bloomberg) — As Italy’s politicians came together this week to back a technical government, calling it the only way to rescue the country from financial ruin, critics say their main goal was really saving their pensions.
“Half the guys in there are worried about getting their pensions or increasing them by staying in office longer,” said Luca Barbareschi, a lawmaker in Italy’s lower house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. “It’s definitely a motivation,” said Barbareschi, who entered parliament in 2008 as a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Liberty party and switched to independent status this year.
As politicians plot the country’s future, ordinary Italians are being asked to postpone retirement under proposed austerity legislation that calls for raising the pensionable age to 67 from 65, as the country tries to cut its 1.9 trillion-euro debt, which amounts to 120 percent of gross domestic product. To underscore the urgency of the issue, Italy’s new prime minister Mario Monti appointed Elsa Fornero, an expert on the pension system, as welfare minister to work on reforms.
“We have to work a lifetime to get half or even less, of what they do, it’s simply unfair,” said Orsola Faraone, a retired teacher who receives 1,400 euros a month in pension payments. The retirement funds going to politicians “is money they are taking away from ordinary citizens,” she said.
The Chamber of Deputies will decide in a confidence vote Friday in Rome whether to support the new government after the 321-seat Senate voted in favor yesterday by a margin of 281 to 25. In the lower house, Monti is expected to have at least 560 votes out of 630.
Five-Year Term
In the Chamber of Deputies, 247 members still need to complete at least one full five-year term to be eligible for a special pension which kicks in when legislators reach the age of 65. More than 100 Senators are in the same position, according to data collected from the websites of both chambers.
Until 1997, Italian lawmakers could retire as early as 50, and until 2007 they could earn the right to a payout after just 2.5 years in parliament. Even today, parliamentarians with 10 years of service can bring their retirement age forward by five years and start receiving lifetime pension checks at 60.
In a country that’s averaged almost a government a year since World War II, that means there are more than 2,300 pensions being paid to ex-lawmakers, according to a report in weekly l’Espresso.
Porn Star
Ilona Staller, who was better known as the porn star Cicciolina, retired recently at the age of 60 after having earlier served a five-year term in the lower house and told newspapers including Corriere della Sera that she receives a pension of 3,000 euros a month before taxes. Staller said she’d give it all to charity if other members of parliament did the same, according to Corriere.
“The system was created in the days when many workers didn’t even have pensions,” as a way to repay deputies in their old age for serving the country, said Roberto Pessi, professor of labor law at Rome’s LUISS Guido Carli University. “Today, it would make more sense to simply have the time served in parliament form part of an overall tally of years worked toward a pension.”
The pension system for lawmakers is necessary to guarantee independence for parliament members, who may have given up their regular jobs to serve in government, the Italian Senate said on its website. The payout has been cut to between 20 percent and 60 percent of gross salary from 25 percent to 80 percent.
Free Travel
Members of parliament earn between 5,487 euros and 5,613 euros a month after taxes, plus about 3,500 euros a month for living expenses, according to the Chamber of Deputies and Senate websites. The country’s 951 members of parliament also enjoy perks like free air and rail travel.
By contrast, the average monthly gross paycheck for an Italian worker is 2,033 euros, according to data from national statistics institute ISTAT.
Eugenio Scalfari, the 87-year-old founder of newspaper la Repubblica who’s criticized lifetime payments, wrote in an editorial that he was rebuffed in attempts to return the 2,400- euro pension he gets for a four-year stint in the Chamber of Deputies beginning in 1968.
“I sincerely hope the new prime minister takes a nice broom in hand and cleans out the house,” said Franca Rame, a writer and actress who’s married to Nobel prize-winning author Dario Fo. Rame, 83, served in the Senate, where she was known for her crusades against waste and privileges for politicians.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Homeowners to Face Return of ICI and Higher Taxes for Multiple Ownership
Target of about €10 billion a year, compared with Giulio Tremonti’s certified €3.5 billion. The options.
ROME — The return of the ICI property tax on first homes, abolished by the Berlusconi government in 2008, is a virtual certainty, perhaps in the form of advance payment of the IMU municipal tax introduced under fiscal federalism. This could be beefed up by a review of land registry values, which have remained unchanged for fifteen years, and by a rising scale of rates depending on the number of dwellings owned.
The tax thus extends beyond first homes in an attempt to rake in about €10 billion a year, which compares with the €3.5 billion certified by Giulio Tremonti for the former ICI tax. The revenue would offset the introduction of the flat-rate tax on rents introduced last year, which benefited landlords. The Monti government may then introduce a wealth tax on unearned income, liquidity, shares, funds and bonds (there are many versions, ranging from lighter levies to punitive measures that would slash public debt by a quarter). A wealth tax is a sine qua non for trade union approval before moving on to reform pensions and the labour market. This pivotal issue is something that Mario Monti and Corrado Passera want to sort out around a table with the unions and business representatives…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Fini Authorises Abolition of Life Payments for Ex-MPs
(AGI) Verona — Gianfranco Fini said he has authorised the abolition of lifetime payments for ex MPs following the next election. Addressing the Terzo Polo national conference in Verona, the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies confirmed his decision: “The speaker’s office has decided to authorise the college of quaestors to pass a reform abolishing life payments for former MPs from the next parliament.” His statement was greeted with a lot of applause.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Lawmakers Concede Budget Talks Are Close to Failure
Conceding that talks on a grand budget deal are near failure, Congressional leaders on Sunday pointed fingers at each other as they tried to deflect blame for their inability to figure out a way to lower the federal deficit without having to rely on automated cuts.
The testy exchanges — which dominated the Sunday talk shows — made clear that leaders in both parties now see the so-called “sequester,” a term meaning an automatic spending cut, as the most likely solution to reduce the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion over 10 years, instead of the negotiated package of spending reductions and tax increases they have been unable to achieve over the last 10 weeks.
Democrats blamed the Republicans for their unwillingness to walk away from a no-new-taxes pact they signed at the request of a conservative, anti-tax group, arguing that the American public realizes that no grand deal could be reached without a combination of spending cuts and new tax revenues.
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Merkel Behind Europe’s Woes: Norwegian Prof
German Chancellor Angela Merkel “is a big part of Europe’s problem”, a Norwegian economics professor and star guest at an Ernst & Young seminar has told financiers.
Professor Victor Norman from the Norwegian School of Economics said Europe’s panic mode is as much attributable to Merkel as it is to Italian debt outweighing helter-skelter Greek, Spanish and Portuguese bonds.
“Had everyone followed Mrs. Merkel’s wish and not gone into debt, then there wouldn’t be anyone left to buy goods,” Norman said.
He added that there wasn’t sufficient demand across Europe, and that a financial crisis package wasn’t going to be enough.
“One has to start consuming more,” he said, “especially in Germany.”
Norman’s speech, “The Economic Consequences of Mrs. Merkel,” promised to explain Europe’s “real” problems.
“The budget problems are symptoms, not reasons,” he said, adding that the continent isn’t suffering from a euro currency crisis or a debt crisis. The euro itself was making it difficult to climb out of crisis.
“The eurozone does not have a problem. It is the problem,” the professor told financial news service E24.
Norman added that demand has languished since around 2008, when European states started to compensate for weak consumerism with public-sector spending.
Southern Europe’s main flaw, he added, was that it “lacked a central bank”. The European Central Bank was being run by politicians in France and Germany, where Merkel and her advisors “are satisfied if a decision takes three weeks”.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: State Pays 100 Mln Euros Per Day Interest Debt
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, Nov. 14 — Each day the Spanish government has to allocate 75 million euros to deal with the payment of amortization interest on public debt, now in excess of half a billion euros, according to Treasury data published today in the Spanish press. In total, including the financial expenses of regions and local authorities, the public administration spends about 100 million euros every day to cover the accumulated debt, estimated at over 700 billion as of June 30. In 2012 the state will allocate 27.42 billion to cover the financial costs, 71.9% more than it spent in 2007, at the beginning of the crisis. This figure increased to 16.631 billion euros in 2008, 17.432 in 2009 and 23.224 2010, the beginning of the sovereign debt crisis.
During this period, the return offered by the Treasury to investors in order to sell the debt has not stopped rising. In September last year the state paid an average interest of 3.96% on its bonds, which in the past two months have increased by 12.18%, according to the issuing authority. Last week, the spread between the Spanish 10-year bono and German benchmark over the same period reached 424 basis points, on the secondary market, their interest has climbed to 6%, a level not seen since 1997. Today the spread returned to levels of over 400 basis points.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain to the Polls Under Market Pressure, PP Asks for Time
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, NOVEMBER 18 — Spain will vote next Sunday, feeling pressure from the markets and the spectre of an economic bailout around the corner, after an electoral campaign marked by the sovereign debt crisis and the record spread. But also, for the first time in Spain, by the absence of ETA violence. On Sunday November 20, on the 36th anniversary of the death of dictator Francisco Franco, 35.7 million people in Spain are called to renew the Spanish parliament. Around 1.5 million of these are young people, many of them ‘indignados’ and unemployed, voting for the first time. “Act quickly” will be the slogan of the new government, which will have to launch further measures to cut the country’s deficit, demanded by IMF and Brussels. According to forecasts made by the European Commission, the country will not reach its deficit reduction targets in the coming three years: in 2011 the deficit will reach 6.6%, six tenths over the planned rate, and problem will continue in 2012 and 2013 due to stagnating economic growth 0.7% of GDP in 2011 and 0.8% in 2012.
The most dramatic result of the prolonged crisis is unemployment, which has risen over 21.5% and could reach 23% in 2012, according to BBVA estimates, 45% among young people below the age of 25. These figures meant the end for the socialist government of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who was forced to announce his exit in July, calling early elections. The political stage is dominated by the economic uncertainty. All polls clearly show that people want change, with the conservative People’s Party led by Mariano Rajoy headed for an absolute majority with 46.6% of votes, 16.5 points more than the 29.9% for the socialist PSOE party of Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, based on the most recent poll carried out by the national centre for sociological research (CIS). Izquierda Unida, the left-wing coalition, takes advantage of the votes lost by the PSOE, growing from 2 to 8 seats. The Catalan Christian democrats of Convergencia i Union are expected to become the third-largest political force, with 13 MPs. The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) will lose 3 seats according to the forecasts, leaving the party 3 MPs.
But the debt crisis is so serious that, as the Wall Street Journal wrote, “it is unlikely that the elections can cure Spain’s problems.” Premier ‘in pectore’ Rajoy has been accused of “indecision” by The Times. He has insisted on budget austerity but so far has failed to clearly indicate where cuts should be made. In an interview with El Pais, he said that he will not raise taxes and that he wants to “maintain the buying power of pensions.” He admitted that generalised cuts are needed, but mentions a reduction of public works and the “suppression of many autonomous bodies” as only examples.
Rajoy is accused by the PSOE party and its candidate Rubalcaba of having a “hidden agenda”: dismantling the welfare system and introducing new privatisations, with tax policies that will increase social disparity and undo the social reforms, including economic assistance to handicapped persons, introduced by the previous socialist governments. “I am concerned about the fact that the right-wing could win with an absolute majority,” he told El Pais, hoping to mobilise the left-wing electorate for next Sunday’s ballot.
The new government is not expected to be sworn in before December 20. But the markets are not willing to wait. Today Mariano Rajoy asked the markets, faced with an escalating spread that is only curbed by a new ECB intervention, to give the new government “a minimum margin of more than half an hour”, stressing that “there will be no power vacuum” to take possible emergency measures. Socialist candidate Rubalcaba also asked for “reason” and “calm”, underlining that Spain “has sufficient margin” thanks to “solid solvency and economic basis”. The same reassuring words were spoken by Vice Premier and Economy Minister Elena Salgado, who guaranteed that the country will not need an economic bailout. But so far nobody seems to listen.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tax Evasion Pressure Maintained on Switzerland
International pressure on tax haven Switzerland to amend its ways is showing no signs of relenting despite Swiss efforts to resolve the long-standing row.
The latest moves by Germany, France, the United States, the G20 group of powerful nations and the European Union demonstrate that the renegotiation of tax treaties will not make the issue go away.
Swiss banks have vowed to end their practice of providing safe haven to undeclared assets while the government has signed dozens of new treaties, including two ground breaking deals with Germany and Britain.
Switzerland’s goal is to shut the vaults of new tax evaders and to ensure that backdated taxes are paid back on long standing assets, while at the same time preserving the anonymity of clients and protecting the tattered remains of banking secrecy.
The deals with Germany and Britain — known as the Rubik system — promised to do just that, but recent German media reports suggested that the treaty would not pass through parliament without significant revisions.
Fresh demands
Der Spiegel newspaper reported last week that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble wants to renegotiate the landmark treaty that was signed by both parties in September.
Many German parliamentarians will reportedly refuse to rubber stamp the deal because it contains a clause that restricts enhanced Swiss administrative cooperation to 500 cases a year.
Such queries, designed to check that the deal is being implemented properly, can only apply to assets deposited after the agreement comes into force and must include the client’s name and a justifiable suspicion of irregularity.
Opposition to the treaty was voiced in September by former German finance minister Peer Steinbrück, who told the media: “It would be better not to have a new double taxation agreement with Switzerland than to have this bill.”
The German authorities have not confirmed Schäuble’s intention to seek greater administrative cooperation while Switzerland has insisted it would not enter into negotiations to revise the treaty…
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The End of Italy
Why should we be surprised Italy is falling apart? With dozens of languages and a hastily made union, it was barely a real country to begin with.
By David Gilmour
Italy is falling apart, both politically and economically. Faced with a massive debt crisis and defections from his coalition in Parliament, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — the most dominant political figure in Rome since Benito Mussolini — tendered his resignation last week. Yet Italy’s problems go deeper than Berlusconi’s poor political performance and his notorious peccadilloes: Their roots lie in the country’s fragile sense of a national identity in whose founding myths few Italians now believe.
Italy’s hasty and heavy-handed 19th-century unification, followed in the 20th century by fascism and defeat in World War II, left the country bereft of a sense of nationhood. This might not have mattered if the post-fascist state had been more successful, not just as the overseer of the economy but as an entity with which its citizens could identify and rely on. Yet for the last 60 years, the Italian Republic has failed to provide functioning government, tackle corruption, safeguard the environment, or even protect its citizens from the oppression and violence of the Mafia, the Camorra, and the other criminal gangs. Now, despite the country’s intrinsic strengths, the Republic has shown itself incapable of running the economy.
It took four centuries for the seven kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England to finally become one in the 10th, yet nearly all the territories of the seven states that made up 19th-century Italy were molded together in less than two years, between the summer of 1859 and the spring of 1861. The pope was stripped of most of his dominions, the Bourbon dynasty was exiled from Naples, the dukes of central Italy lost their thrones, and the kings of Piedmont became monarchs of Italy. At the time, the speed of Italian unification was regarded as a kind of miracle, a magnificent example of a patriotic people uniting and rising up to eject foreign oppressors and home-bred tyrants…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Man Arrested and Charged in New York City Bomb Plot
The authorities have arrested a man who law enforcement officials believe was planning to build and detonate a bomb in New York with government workers, returning military personnel and elected officials as the target, two people briefed on the case said on Sunday.
Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly of the New York Police Department announced the charges against the man at a Sunday evening news conference at City Hall.
The man was arrested within the last 24 hours.
The defendant in the case, identified as Jose Pimentel, 27, had bought bomb-making materials and “began to build them,” said one person briefed on the case, who added that the Police Department had had the man under surveillance for about a year.
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Obama is the Best in Fund Raising for USA 2012
(AGI) Washington — Up to now, Obama has raised 86 million Dollars, more than all the Republican contenders put together.
Hoping to exceed the 750 million raised in 2008, Obama’s Chicago election campaign staff developed a well-targeted policy that equally aims at large donors and grassroots constituency.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Belgium: 25 Percent of Brussels Population is Muslim
More than 250,000 residents out of a total population of one million in Brussels have Muslim roots, according to a study carried out by the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and published in the Belgian media Friday.
The study was carried out by Felice Dasetto, a sociologist and a professor at the university who is considered to be an expert in issues relating to Muslims in Belgium.
Brussels the political capital of the European Union accounts for half of the total number of Muslims in Belgium.
The figure puts Belgium among other European cities with a big Muslim presence like Birmingham in the UK, says the study.
It claims that the Islamic presence is becoming more and more visible in Brussels with more mosques and minarets, more women wearing a veil and more Muslim organisations.
The study argues that the Islamic faith has the power to mobilise people to a a very big extent, more than for example the Catholic church or political parties.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Europe’s Food Safety in Hands of Lobbies
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was set up to protect consumers. That’s their job. And yet staff at the agency, who ought to be deciding independently on what new products are permitted to come to market, are working closely with the food industry itself.
As documents from the authority reveal, the Chairman of the Panel on Nutrition, Albert Flynn, also works for the U.S. company Kraft. Up until March 2011, EFSA management board member Jiri Ruprich worked for Danone in the Czech Republic, while since 2000 panel member Carlo Agostoni has received conference speaking fees from companies such as Nestle, Danone, Heinz, Hipp, Humana and Mead Johnson.
This is alarming, because what may or may not end up on the plates of European consumers is determined by Europe’s highest food supervisory authority. Headquartered in Parma, Italy, with 450 employees and an annual budget of at least 73 million euros, EFSA is the top cop for food risk assessment in Europe.
Critics are now accusing it of failing to take on conflicts of interest, despite several scandals. “It’s just not acceptable that representatives of an industry whose products are to be assessed are sitting in just that agency that’s supposed to assess them”, complains Timo Lange of LobbyControl.
A perfect marketing tool
The biggest obstacle to reform are existing EU regulations. Under them, EFSA’s members are not prohibited from acting on behalf of the food industry, so long as they admit their conflict in a so-called declaration of interests.
That this is far from acting independently is revealed by the example of Albert Flynn, from Ireland, who heads the EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies. Under his chairmanship, a particularly delicate decision related to the approval of a product from Kraft Foods Europe, “Biscuits for Breakfast”, was published on 21 July 2011. That the nutritionist is at the same time a member of a Kraft Foods advisory board evidently failed to ruffle the board.
Flynn’s panel decided in favour of Kraft’s application for its cereal product with a higher proportion of slowly digestible starch (SDS). According to the manufacturer, SDS should slow the rise of sugar levels in the blood after eating, which is good news for diabetics.
For food manufacturers, it’s about money and market share. Claims that foods will confer better health are a perfect marketing tool. If a manufacturer can persuade a consumer of a particular health benefit from a food product, it boosts its own market share too…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany: Protests as Berlin Bans Barbecues in the Tiergarten
(AGI) Berlin — Protests have broken out in Berlin following the city council’s decision to ban barbecues in the Tiergarten park. As of 2012 barbecue lovers will be unable to grill their food in the enormous city centre park, just a few yards from the Reichstag. The first to protest was Hilmi Kaya Turan, president of the Turkish Association of Berlin-Brandenburg (TBB), according to whom this is a “populist decision” which will “particularly hit families, forced to go to more distant parks.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Germany’s Channel ZDF Screens ‘Nazi’ Star Trek Episode
(AGI) Berlin — After a 43-year ban, German audiences were treated to a previously unseen episode of Star Trek. During the late night broadcasting slot, channel ZDF broadcast an episode in which the Enterprise’s Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock land on Nazi-ruled planet Ekon. Filled with explicit references to Nazism the episode concentrates on the Enterprise and its crew’s efforts to thwart Nazi efforts to quash nearby planet Zeon — reminiscent of Zion and Zionism.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
How a Far-Right Party Came to Dominate Swiss Politics
It has become the biggest party in Swiss politics and one of the most talked-about far-right parties in Europe. Meritxell Mir looks at how the SVP became so successful.
With a strident anti-immigration stance and provocative campaigns, the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) has become one of the most successful right-wing populist parties in Europe. It now looks set to repeat its success in October’s federal elections.
For decades, the SVP seemed to be little more than a curiosity in Swiss politics, winning about one in every ten votes in elections. However, since the early 1990s its popularity has rocketed, its share of the vote doubling in 12 years. In the 1995 federal elections, the far-right party got 14.9 percent of the votes. By 2007, its support had risen to 28.9 percent.
“It has become the strongest and most stable extreme-right party in Europe,” says Georg Lutz, director of Swiss Electoral Studies at the Swiss Foundation for Research in Social Sciences in Lausanne.
Today, it’s as strong as ever. The latest poll, published on September 9th and conducted by pollster gsf.berne, showed the SVP way ahead of its opponents, with the support of 28 percent of respondents. The Socialist Party ranked second with 20.5 percent of the vote share, followed by the Free Democratic Party (15.6 percent), the Christian Democratic Party (14.5) and the Greens (9.5).
Like similar parties in other countries, the SVP plays on voters’ fear of change, Lutz argues:
“Globalization, the openness and the enlargement of the European Union, and the increasing amount of immigrants were seen as a cultural threat to Swiss identity for many people.”
The SVP identified those fears and “it became a one-issue party,” always talking about immigration “in different variations,” such as foreign criminals, minarets or the burqa, Lutz tells The Local.
“First, they put the European Union issue on the table; then, when that issue lost its potential due to bilateral agreements, they switched to the question of immigration and foreign criminals,” explains Simon Bornschier, a political researcher who studies the rise of right-wing populist parties in Switzerland and the rest of Europe.
The SVP’s clear and unambiguous message has helped it set the political agenda for the last 15 years, Bornschier says. It has done this partly through Switzerland’s system of popular initiatives — referendums launched as a result of public petitions. Some of the most high-profile recent popular initiatives, such as the minaret ban or the automatic deportation of foreign criminals, were launched by the SVP.
The party’s campaigns have also influenced, or at least closely reflected, voters’ perceptions of reality. According to a poll on citizen’s main concerns published by gfs.berne in September, about 45 percent of the Swiss polled identified immigration as the most important issue in the country. The environment (25 percent) and the economic situation (22) followed far behind.
According to polls, the average SVP voter is a male from a lower socio-economic group who lives in one of the German-speaking cantons.
Strong presence in the media
The SVP’s cause is helped immeasurably by its domination of the Swiss media. According to a study conducted by the Institute for Political Sciences at the University of Bern, the SVP was present in one third of the 8,000 online headlines checked via RSS between late June and mid-September.
The research, lead by political scientist Marc Bühlmann, concluded that the SVP’s success in the media is due to a great extent to its provocative messages. Even when press coverage of the far-right party is negative, they bring the SVP the attention it wants, the study pointed out.
“If you ask journalists in Bern which party press conferences they prefer to attend, they will say the SVP’s because it is more fun,” says Lutz. “The reason is that they are provocative, and they reduce their message to very central elements and frame it and phrase it in a very catchy way.”
Always campaigning
Its success can also been explained by how active the SVP is. “It was probably the first party who moved from a logic of campaigning three months ahead of the elections to be strategically and permanently campaigning,” says Lutz.
The millions of dollars thrown into the hands of the SVP has also helped to spread the views of Christoph Blocher, vice president and party member.
In the 1991 and 1995 elections, the SVP managed to draw together most of the support that other small extreme-right parties had enjoyed before. Today, “these small political groups have almost vanished,” Bornschier tells The Local.
In order to become the dominant far-right party in Swiss administrations, it was necessary to mobilize the party’s grassroots. Today, the SVP has more members than any other party.
“They are very good at organising, they systematically open local branches and their top members go every week to local events to talk to people,” says Lutz.
“What they do is amazing,” he adds.
And if the polls are to be believed, the success of the SVP looks set to continue for some time to come, much to the dismay of many of the country’s immigrants and more centrist parties.
| — Hat tip: Freedom Fighter | [Return to headlines] |
How Long Before the Grey Dictators March on London?
By Peter Hitchens
Civilian juntas have seized power in Rome and Athens. Soon, similar gangs of grey men may be sweeping aside national governments in Madrid and Lisbon. Nobody much is protesting. In time — don’t rule it out — it could be our turn here, with Lords Patten and Mandelson forming a cabinet of none of the talents.
Our ruling Left-wing elite seem oddly untroubled by the ruthless snuffing-out of national sovereignty across southern Europe. If the same thing had been done by a bunch of colonels, they would have been piously outraged.
But of course these putsches are the work of the European Union, a project the Left have long supported. And the EU is more subtle than any colonels. There is no need for midnight arrests or tanks on the streets. The enormous invisible power of the EU’s law and institutions gets its way without any need for such things.
The sheer dictatorial nerve of Italy’s new viceroy, Mario Monti, is impressive. He has formed a government without a single elected politician in it.
You may well say that Italy’s politicians are, like ours, a sorry collection of blowhards and amateurs. But that does not mean they should be replaced by something worse — robots under the command of the EU Commission.
Once again, please pay close attention. This is the best warning you will ever get of what the EU is really about. It is an empire, in which the great nations of Europe, including ours, are intended to disappear for ever.
It has from the start been based on a grave mistake — the idea that national differences and independence no longer matter and are obsolete. It is this mistake which led it into creating the mad single currency that is now ruining it. But people who are driven by ideals can seldom see when they are wrong.
You and I may grasp that the euro has failed, as we always knew it would. But in the high councils of Euroland, they are unable to recognise this blazingly obvious reality…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Milan’s Mayor Designates Nov 20 for Electric Vehicles Only
(AGI) Milan — The mayor of Milan, Giuliano Pisapia, signed an ordinance this afternoon allowing only electric vehicles to drive on the city’s streets on Nov. 20. Traffic will be stopped from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. throughout the city with the only exceptions being highways, the city’s ring road and their parking areas.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: 110 Convictions at ‘Ndrangheta Trial in Milan
(AGI) Milan — A trial in Milan stemming from an investigation into the ‘Ndrangheta criminal organisation led to 110 convictions. The trial stemmed from the ‘infinito’ investigation which revealed the organisation’s deep penetration of region Lombardy. Preliminary hearing judge Roberto Arnaldi handed down 110 convictions, as part of the fast-track trial, and acquitted 8 defendants. Another case was shelved following the death of the defendant. The highest sentence was 16 years in jail.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Nausea in Paris
Why is Islamism not seen as right-wing extremism? Frederik Stjernfelt on the media reaction to the arson attack on Charlie Hebdo.
It is with an increasing feeling of queasiness that I have followed the incidents surrounding the Parisian weekly Charlie Hebdo and its special issue on the sharia, which was inspired by the political developments in Libya and Tunisia.
Early in the morning of November 2nd a window was broken and a Molotov cocktail thrown into the premises of the magazine, which subsequently burned out. By sheer luck nobody was hurt. Disturbing voices and events have presented themselves in the wake of the expectedly strong reactions against this attack on free speech. The asylum offered to the publishers of Charlie Hebdo by the daily Libération initially constituted a encouraging event — one voice of support against threats to free speech.
But the larger picture looks more alarming. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but it would not be far-fetched to assume that it is linked to the publication of the special issue published by Charia Hebdo on the day the attack took place. The incident therefore constitutes a radical resurgence of the religious curtailment of free speech — in the midst of one of the very cradles of freedom of expression. It was in Paris that free speech was first established as a fundamental legal fact in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man — after a protracted and bitter decade-long struggle between the radical Enlightenment on the one hand and the Catholic Church and French Absolutism on the other — a history rife with burning books, which prefigured the burning piles of Charlie Hebdo copies on Tuesday night…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Wind Energy Not Yet Profitable
The government has invested a total €3bn on developing wind technology and compensating for the losses over the past 20 years, according to a new report by the national statistics office CBS.
The CBS figures show last year, the wind energy sector made a loss of €150m but received €360m in government support.
The loss is largely due to low electricity prices and the shortage of wind, the CBS said.
The figures are contained in the CBS’s 2010 (English language) environmental accounts.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Poll Finds French Not So Chauvinistic After All
France’s reputation for chauvinism took a hit on Thursday from an opinion poll that revealed that only 27 percent of its people think French culture is better than all others.
In fact, 73 percent of French respondents to the ongoing Pew Research Center survey of US and European attitudes disagreed that “our culture is superior to others,” the polling institute reported.
Forty-nine percent of Americans believed US culture was the best, even if “our people are not perfect,” followed by Germans at 47 percent, Spaniards at 44 percent and Britons at 32 percent.
But, when set against past surveys, it appears “Americans are now far less likely to say that their culture is better than others; six-in-ten Americans held this belief in 2002 and 55 percent did so in 2007,” the pollsters said.
“Belief in cultural superiority has declined among Americans across age, gender and education groups.”
Americans were most likely to consider freedom to pursue life’s goals is most important (58 percent), while Germans were most likely to view success in life as being determined “by forces outside our control” (72 percent).
Pew based its findings from random telephone interviews in March and April with about 1,000 respondents in each country (Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the United States) with 3.5-4.5 percent margins of error.
The entire survey appears on its website, www.pewglobal.org.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Wind Farms Are Useless, Says Duke
The Duke of Edinburgh has made a fierce attack on wind farms, describing them as “absolutely useless”.
In a withering assault on the onshore wind turbine industry, the Duke said the farms were “a disgrace”.
He also criticised the industry’s reliance on subsidies from electricity customers, claimed wind farms would “never work” and accused people who support them of believing in a “fairy tale”.
The Duke’s comments will be seized upon by the burgeoning lobby who say wind farms are ruining the countryside and forcing up energy bills.
Criticism of their effect on the environment has mounted, with The Sunday Telegraph disclosing today that turbines are being switched off during strong winds following complaints about their noise.
The Duke’s views are politically charged, as they put him at odds with the Government’s policy significantly to increase the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines.
The country has 3,421 turbines — 2,941 of them onshore — with another 4,500 expected to be built under plans for wind power to play a more important role in providing Britain’s energy.
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, last month called opponents of the plans “curmudgeons and fault-finders” and described turbines as “elegant” and “beautiful”.
The Duke’s attack on the turbines, believed to be the first public insight into his views on the matter, came in a conversation with the managing director of a leading wind farm company.
When Esbjorn Wilmar, of Infinergy, which builds and operates turbines, introduced himself to the Duke at a reception in London, he found himself on the end of an outspoken attack on his industry.
“He said they were absolutely useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace,” said Mr Wilmar. “I was surprised by his very frank views.”
Mr Wilmar said his attempts to argue that onshore wind farms were one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy received a fierce response from the Duke.
“He said, ‘You don’t believe in fairy tales do you?’“ said Mr Wilmar. “He said that they would never work as they need back-up capacity.”…
| — Hat tip: Gaia | [Return to headlines] |
Serbia: Census Shows Shrinking Population
Belgrade, 15 Nov. (AKI) — Serbia’s population has been reduced by five per cent in the past nine years, mostly because of low birthrate and migrations, the latest census published on Tuesday showed.
Dragan Vukmirovic, director of state statistics bureau, told a press conference in Belgrade the census conducted last month showed that Serbia had a population of 7.1 million, 377,000 less than during last census in 2002.
The figures didn’t include former Serbia’s province of Kosovo, whose 1.7 million ethnic Albanians declared independence in 2008. In addition, ethnic Albanians concentrated in southern Presevo Valley, boycotted the census.
Vukmirovic said only for cities, including capital Belgrade, have shown population increases, while many villages in rural areas are dying out. In 85 per cent of municipalities the population has been reduced by nine and more per cent, he said.
Close to 300,000 Serbian citizens live abroad and the number of villages with less than 100 inhabitants has increased to 975 from 707 nine years ago, the census showed.
Other data, including ethnic and religious structure of the population, will be revealed over the next two years, Vukmirovic said. Apart from Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians, Serbia has a sizable ethnic Albanian, Muslim and ethnic Hungarian minority.
Before Kosovo secession, Serbs represented 63 per cent of the country’s population, but that number should be much higher with Kosovo excluded
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Free to Speak But Not to Act, Says Actor Waked
(ANSAmed) — ROME, NOVEMBER 18 — “We are free to say what we want. But we are not free to do what we want. And there is a large difference between the two.” The Tahrir Square revolution seems distant now, and almost nine months after the fall of Mubarak’s regime many of those hopes which brought millions of Egyptians to take to the streets seem to have vanished — to the extent that Amr Waked, Egyptian film star and well-known activist involved in the January 25 revolution, claims that “we are almost on the same level as before. Nothing has changed.” In Rome yesterday evening where he took part in the opening of the new cultural season at the Egyptian Academy, Waked introduced himself as an “involved” actor, though he doesn’t like the expression very much since he prefers “to stay in the artistic sphere and not get involved in politics”. However, this 39-year-old — known internationally for his role in “Syriana” (2005), alongside George Clooney, and “The Father and the Foreigner” (2010) by Ricky Tognazzi — was in Tahrir Square from January 25 to February 11 2011. “However, the true diehard activist,” he noted, “is my brother, Mohamed. We are both part of the National Front for Justice and Democracy, a pressure group and not a political party.” He says that it is difficult to understand what freedom is, “a concept which we are by no means used to. And it is even more difficult to understand what others’ freedom means as well as respect for the latter.” This process, he added, “is much slower than what we had been expecting.” Under age forty, Waked has already taken on the role of director and has his own film production studio. Two days before Mubarak fell on February 9, he also gave in to the temptation and took up a video camera, beginning to shoot a feature film on the revolution: “R”. “R, the first letter of the word revolution. R, because we are only at the beginning,” he noted.
In this work due out next year, the Tahrir Square protests remain in the background. “The lives of three characters is the focus: an engineer, a television host and a policeman.” The films which have come out over the past few months shot live in the square serve as documentation for what happened. However, he feels that at least ten years will be needed to understand what really happened. Also for cinematography time is needed. With over ten years in the theatre to his name, a degree from the American University of Cairo and fourteen years in film, for a long time he was stuck in the “bad guy” role. After “Syriana”, where he played a “recruiter” for suicide bombers, he was offered over 18 scripts along the same line. Finally, he says, “I have got past this cliché.” Over the next few months he will be seen in a feature film produced by Luc Besson in which he plays the role of an Eastern European doctor as well as in a Canal+ television series in which he plays the role of a Greek activist fighting against capitalism.
“I am happy,” he concluded, “to have finally got out of the Arab terrorist stereotype and roles handed out on ethnic criteria.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egyptian Doctors: 3 Killed in Assault on Protesters
CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian doctors say three people have been killed in a police and army assault to evict protesters at Cairo’s central Tahrir Square. The assault came on the second of two days of clashes between Egyptian security and protesters calling on the ruling military to quickly announce a date for the transfer of power to a civilian administration.
Mahmoud Said, a doctor at the nearby Munira hospital, said the bodies of two men were brought to the hospital on Sunday evening, while Mohammed Qenawy, a doctor at one of two field hospitals in the square, said a male protester in his early 20s also was killed. The military took over when longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a popular uprising in February.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Mazara Del Vallo Fishing Boat Taken to Tripoli
(ANSAmed) — PALERMO, 18 NOVEMBER — The Twenty Two, a fishing vessel owned by a Mazara del Vallo based company, was seized by a Libyan patrol boat and diverted to the port of Tripoli on Wednesday. There were 10 sailors on board, four Italians and six non-EU citizens. The boat was in the Gulf of Sidra, 31 miles northwest of the North African coast, in waters that the Libyans consider their own. In the past, Gaddafi’s regime repeatedly seized vessels from Mazara.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Iran Closes Reformist Newspaper for “Lies and Insults”
(AGI) Tehran — Iran has banned the reformist newspaper, Etemad, for two months, because it writes ‘lies and insults’.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Jordan: Protests in Amman, Islamists Demand Reforms
(ANSAmed) — AMMAN, NOVEMBER 18 — Hundreds of Islamist activists rallied in down town Amman after Friday prayer demanding speedy reform and measures to end corruption.
Security forces were present in high numbers, but the rally ended peacefully despite rising tension.
Demonstrators said they wanted to see the king carry out badly needed political reform and to a serious fight against growing corruption. The rally is being organized by the Islamist movement, the strongest political group in the kingdom, which last month refused to take part in the newly appointed government appointed by the king.
Islamist leaders said they will not be fooled by the frequent changes in names of prime ministers and governments but want a grass root reform.
“The people want to see an end to corruption, nepotism, favouritism and most of all interference of security forces in our lives,” Hamazah Mansour, secretary general of the Islamic Action Front (IAF) the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Islamist movement has been calling for ground breaking constitutional changes to limit powers of the king and allow governments formed based on parliament majority.
The pro-west monarch currently has the constitutional power to fire and hire governments at his wish. Authorities has recently come under fire from the opposition for what has been seen as a deliberate attempt to impede investigation into a number of high profile corruption cases that involve ministers and influential businessmen.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lebanon: National ‘Miss’ Accused of Preferring Congo to Beirut
(ANSAmed) — BEIRUT, NOVEMBER 18 — Miss Lebanon has had to apologise to her fans for a gaffe committed when she said that she felt more “relaxed” and “at ease” in the Republic of Congo than in her own country.
Miss Lebanon Yara Khoury, 19, crowned Miss Lebanon in July, published an open letter on her Facebook page in which she says that she did not intend to offend the Lebanese in any way. In an interview with the judges for the Miss World competition that recently ended up on Youtube, the young woman said that she felt more at ease in the Republic of Congo, where she recently went to visit her father, than in Beirut. The Lebanese capital is “chaotic, with crazy traffic,” underscored Miss Lebanon, “whereas when I go to Congo I find calm and peace. I feel more at ease, it is a time for me to relax.”
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh: Acid Attacks, Women and Children the Most Affected Group
Since 1999, 2,496 cases of acid attacks, according to data from the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF). In 2010, 72% of cases of girls and women between 18 and 34 years. Growing attacks on men, over property related issues.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) — Dowries, adultery, rejection of sexual advances, family disputes and vendettas related to property are the main causes of the 2,496 cases of acid attacks since 1999. Girls and women between 18 and 34 years are the most affected age group, with 74 cases recorded in 2010. In recent years, although to a lesser extent, men between 25 and 44 years have also become victims of this practice, mostly for reasons related to money and land. The data are from the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), an organization founded in Dhaka in 1999 by British physician John Morrison.
Proprio nel 2002, su pressione di ong nazionali e internazionali, il governo ha varato una severa legge contro tale fenomeno, che ha portato alla condanna di 53 persone solo quell’anno. Nel 2003, il numero delle condanne balza a 96, per poi scendere in modo netto a 50 l’anno seguente.
In 1999, there were 115cases of acid attacks. A number destined to rise exponentially over the following years: 174 in 2000 and 252 in 2001, 367 in 2002. Year after year, thanks to the work of the Asf — which uses the latest technology and has a large volunteer basin of medical personnel, even foreign — the number of survivors has grown hand in hand: 138 in 1999, 234 in 2001, 349 in 2002. Since the founding of Asf, global statistics speak of 3,194 survivors.
Only in 2002, under pressure from national and international NGOs, the government has passed a strict law against this phenomenon, which has led to the conviction of 53 people that year alone. In 2003, the number of convictions jumped to 96, then declined sharply to 50 in the following year.
Since the beginning of this year, the association has recorded only 63 new attacks, against 80 cases of survivors. Although episodes are declining, the phenomenon of acid attacks have yet to be brought under control. In 2010 alone, 72% of the cases involved women and girls. Yesterday the story emerged of Sima, a ten year old girl disfigured with acid by her father when she was only ten months old.
The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) works with the victims of the acid attacks, providing advanced medical care, rehabilitation, psychological and legal support, in order to reintegrate these people — mostly women and children — into their communities and raise awareness of the problem in society. (N.I.)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan to Block 1,700 Offensive Words in Texting
Islamabad: If Pakistan’s telecom regulator has its way, millions of mobile phone users may be unable to send text messages with “offensive” and “obscene” words like crap, damn, hobo, flatulence, gay, lesbian and slime from Monday.
These words are part of a list of nearly 1,700 words and terms that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has deemed as offensive, and wants mobile phone operators to filter from SMS text messages.
Operators have been directed to start blocking text messages containing these words from November 21.
The move has been greeted with ridicule and derision, particularly by Pakistan’s vociferous users of internet forums and micro-blogging sites like Twitter.
Since the PTA’s lists of offensive English and Urdu words and terms containing 1,106 and 586 items respectively became public a few days ago, it has become the butt of jokes on the web.
While the English list has 148 items containing a four-letter swear word, it has had many scratching their heads by including words and terms like athlete’s foot, deposit, black out, drunk, flatulence, glazed donut, harem, Jesus Christ, hostage, murder, penthouse, Satan and “flogging the dolphin”..
The lists of offensive words and terms and a letter written on November 14 by PTA’s Director General (Services) Muhammad Talib Doger, instructing mobile phone operators to start filtering SMS messages, have been posted on numerous internet forums after they were leaked to the media last week.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Half Empty: Chinese Hotels Are a Flop
Shanghai hotel occupancy rate is 50 per cent against 80 per cent in Singapore and Hong Kong. In the 1980s, 1990s and before the 2008 Olympics, hotels boomed. The number of internationally branded hotel rooms is expected to surge 52 per cent by 2013. However, many fear a speculative bubble like that of the housing industry.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — China’s hotel occupancy rate was 61 per cent in the first nine months of this year, the same as the year-earlier period and the lowest in Asia after India among 15 countries. In Shanghai, only about half of hotel rooms were filled, compared with more than 80 per cent in Singapore and Hong Kong.
The figures, published by Bloomberg, are surprising because China has become the world’s third-most-visited travel destination overtaking Spain, just behind France and the United States.
China is clearly oversupplied in terms of hotels. In the 1980s and 1990s, state companies build huge hotels to cater to gaggles of businessmen flocking to the Middle Kingdom after it opened its doors to international trade. Then hotel chains came for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Since then, most hotels have had a low occupancy rate, reaching at best 40-50 per cent (see “Olympic flop for Beijing’s hospitality industry,” in AsiaNews, 22 August 2008).
Given the country’ unbridled economic growth, the number of internationally branded hotel rooms is expected to surge 52 per cent by 2013.
Nevertheless, it is likely that the hospitality industry will experience the same speculative bubble of the housing industry (see “Beijing, housing market collapses: down 50% in one year,” in AsiaNews, 16 April 2011).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
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