Europe at aglance NEWS 524 August 2019 THE WEEKUtrecht,
Netherlands
Multistorey bike
park:The world’s
largest multistorey
parking facility for
bicycles has opened
in Utrecht, the
Dutch city that in
1885 became one of
the first in the world
to haveacycle lane on its roads. Tens of
thousands of people ride bikes in Utrecht
every day, and the local infrastructure has
been heavily modified to accommodate
them. The new three-storey bike park, at
Utrecht’s main railway station, has space
for 12,656 bikes, including “cargo bikes”
that can holdafamily. Parking is free for
up to 24 hours. According to government
statistics,aquarter of commuter trips in
the Netherlands are made by bike–but in
the main cities, including Utrecht, the
proportion is even higher.
Moscow
Protests continue:Protesters holding
placards heldaseries of one-person
demonstrations in central Moscow on
Saturday, in an attempt to get round the
rules banning mass protests that have led
to thousands of arrests in recent weeks.
There have been mass protests in Moscow
every weekend since mid-July, when the
city authorities banned high-profile
opposition candidates from standing in
municipal elections. Around 3,000 people
have been arrested so far, and several key
opposition activists, including Alexei
Navalny, remain behind bars. Earlier this
month, prosecutors warnedacouple who
were filmed at an unauthorised protest
with their one-year-old son that the boy
could be taken into care.Paris
English lessons:President Macron’s
favoured candidate for mayor of Paris
has announced that he wants to ensure
all Parisian children are “bilingual”,
with English, by the age of 16. Benjamin
Griveaux, 41, Macron’s former spokesman
and key confidant, said it was deplorable
that “Paris isaglobal city where we speak
English badly, when it is an essential
language to travel and work”–and that
ensuring children learned English would
be a“useful investment for the future”. If
elected next spring, he hopes to introduce
English lessons in nurseries, and get
schools to run extracurricular activities
in English, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Unlike his predecessors, President Macron
likes to speak in English when meeting
foreign leaders, and often peppers his
speeches with English words–which
hasn’t always gone well. Shortly after
being elected, he was mocked for vowing
to make France “unestart-up nation”.
Chia, Sardinia
Stealing sand:Two French tourists are
facing up to six years in prison for trying
to smuggle sand out of Sardinia. The
couple were arrested after police found 14
plastic bottles containing 40kg of sand in
the boot of their car duringaroutine check
at the ferry port of Porto Torres, on the
north coast of the Italian island. They
admitted taking the fine white sand from
abeach near Chia–but said they had no
idea that it wasacriminal offence (despite
numerous signs to that effect), and had
taken it asa“souvenir”. Theft of sand and
shells from Sardinia’s beaches is very
common, according to local police, and
they often appear for sale on such sites as
eBay. Most tourists do not “spend their
time digging up to 40kg of sand each”,
noted environmental scientist Pierluigi
Cocco. But even if only 5% of the million
visitors to Sardinia each year took sand
home, it would lead to significant losses.
Rome
PM quits:Italy’s
prime minister
Giuseppe Conte
(pictured)
abruptly quit on
Tuesday–after
blasting deputy
PM Matteo
Salvini, the leader
of the far-right
League party,
as acynical
opportunist who is “obsessed” with
closing off Italy’s ports to migrants. In
adramatic address to the Senate, with
Salvini sitting at his side, the normally
mild-mannered technocrat savaged Salvini
for acting “irresponsibly” in the interests
of himself and his party–and not in the
national interest–bybreaking his alliance
with the Five Star Movement, and
lobbying for fresh elections (see page 17).Sopron, Hungary
Key “picnic” remembered:Angela Merkel
travelled to the Hungarian town of Sopron
this week to attendaceremony marking
the 30th anniversary of the “Pan-European
Picnic”,aunity event that helped lead to
the fall of the Berlin Wall in November
1989, and ultimately German reunification.
On 19 August 1989, thousands of
Hungarians and Austrians gathered at
their joint border–where the fence was
effectively the “Iron Curtain” separating
the Soviet-controlled eastern bloc from
the rest of Europe. The plan was for small
delegations to cross forafew hours, but
in the event, some 600 East Germans on
holiday in the area surged into Austria, to
get to West Germany. In Sopron, Merkel,
who grew up in East Germany, said
Hungary’s decision to relax border controls
had helped make “the miracle of German
reunification possible”, and thanked its
border guards for their restraint that day.Frankfurt, Germany
Recession looms:Germany’s central
bank has issuedastark warning that the
country’s economy–bysome distance
Europe’s largest–iss lowing and may be
slipping into recession (defined as two
consecutive quarters of contraction).
Germany’s GDP shrank by 0.1% in the
three months to the end of June,adecline
blamed by the Bundesbank onasharp
fall in exports–ofcars and industrial
equipment in particular–asaresult of
the US-China trade war, weakness in the
global car market and anxiety about a
disorderly Brexit. On Monday, the bank
warned that the economy looked set to
remain “lacklustre” during the current
quarter, and predicted that GDP could
“fall slightly”. In recent weeks economists,
business groups and politicians have urged
the government to set aside self-imposed
rules on maintainingabudget surplus,
and to start spending in order to
stimulate the economy.Catch up with daily news at theweek.co.uk