Best articles: Europe NEWS 153August 2019 THE WEEKGetting inastew aboutnot eating porkCicero
(Berlin)It doesn’t take much for Germans to work themselves intoalather over religious sensibilities, says
Antje Hildebrandt. The latest ersatz scandal concernsaLeipzig kindergarten that recently decided
to pull pork off the menu, “out of respect forachanging world”. Gummy bear sweets containing
pork-based gelatine were also withdrawn. Cueasocial media frenzy aboutadisgraceful “surrender
to Islam”, andadiatribe from the mass-circulation tabloid Bild claiming it was done solely to placate
the families of two Muslim girls. Politicians reacted by posting images of juicy grilled meat. Yet did
this really signal the downfall of the West? Of course not. Yes, the kindergarten (which has since
suspended the policy) was being needlessly pious: children need to adapt to their country’s customs.
And “why can’t Frederick orderasausage for lunch and Arslanakofta?” But the real fault here is
Bild’s, for stoking anti-Muslim prejudice with the fiction that all Muslims boycott German food and
values, so provokingafurious backlash. It turnedaminor gaffe intoa“state affair”.Adebate about
our society’s values should not be reduced toarow over “pork schnitzel and gummy bears”.The shameless
violence of the
French police
L’Obs
(Paris)
“Where’s Steve?” That piece of graffiti is popping up all over the city of Nantes, says Pascal Riché.
It’s alsoaTwitter hashtag (#OuEstSteve). It refers to 24-year-old Steve Maia Caniço, who–along
with 13 other late-night revellers celebrating the Festival of Music on the banks of the Loire–was
attackedby police using tear gas and rubber bullets, and fell into the river. Steve couldn’t swim, and
hasn’t beenseen since. It’sashocking case, but not unique: this sort of police brutality is becoming
appallingly common. Inapeaceful environmental protest in Paris recently, activists shouting “Go
easy, police officers, we’re doing it for your children” were sprayed with tear gas. And police charges
againstgilets jaunesprotesters caused many injuries–often of bystanders–and the death of an
elderly woman. Yetfar from being brought to book, police involved in such incidents get promoted.
And the governmentpersists in denying the abuses: Emmanuel Macron claims it’s wrong even to use
the term “police violence”. It wasn’t always so. During the student riots of May 1968, there wasn’t
asingle death in Paris; the city’s prefect, Maurice Grimaud, declared that to hitafallen demonstrator
is to “strike yourself”. Today, the police have no such inhibitions. “Brutality isachoice.”Having fulfilled its pledge to keep the country free of Muslim migrants, Poland’s ruling Law and
Justice (PiS) party has foundanew way to fire up supporters, says Ewa Siedlecka: turning on the gay
and transgender communities. It began asabacklash to Warsaw’s liberal mayor, who wantsLGBT
issues to beatopic in school sex education lessons. An “attack on the family and children”, raged
PiS party leader Jarosław Kaczynski, denouncing “LGBT ideology” asathreat to Polish identity.
Now 30 cities and districts controlled by the party have declared themselves “LGBT-free zones”. But
the bigots aren’t having it all their own way. When the right-wing weekly Gazeta Polska included
“LGBT-free zone” stickers in its latest edition, the distribution company refused to handle it, saying
the stickers fuelled discrimination. Enraged government supporters are calling thisa“violation of
freedom of speech”–but can stickers promoting the exclusion ofasocial group be regarded as
freedom of speech? If anything, it’s Poland’s anti-discrimination laws that are being violated. But
don’texpect government-appointed prosecutors to act. If they turnablind eye to far-right marchers
singing “Zionists will be hanging in the trees instead of leaves”, they won’t do much about this either.The bigots
creating LGBT-
free zones
Polityka
(Warsaw)
GERMANYFRANCEPOLANDNowhere in Europe hasademocratic
upheaval shaken upacountry quite so
vigorously as in Ukraine, said Bernd
Johann inDeutsche Welle (Bonn).Back
in April, Ukrainians elected as their
presidentacomedian and TV star
with zero political experience. Now,
Volodymyr Zelensky has consolidated
his power withathumping victory for
his Servant of the People party in July’s
parliamentary elections, gaining43% of
the vote and 254 MPs in the 450-seat
chamber. Ukraine’s second biggest
party, headed by the pro-Moscow
oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk (a crony
of Vladimir Putin), scored just 13%;
and the party of oligarch Petro Poroshenko, the former
president,awretched 8%. In sum, the voters have transformed
the political landscape: most of the corrupt MPs who served the
interests of oligarchs have been booted out; an astonishing two-
thirds of MPs are new. And Zelensky has the majority required
to enact the deep-seated reforms that Ukraine so badly needs.Zelensky’s new intake of MPs includes chefs, photographers, TV
producers and numerous hacks, said Serhiy Zhadan inNovoye
Vremya (Kiev).But however enthusiastic, such people aren’t
remotely equipped to tackle the challenges of endingasix-year
war and mending the economy. It’s the height of irresponsibilityto hand power to such an inexperienced
crowd. Voter expectations are simply
unrealistic. We’d all like Ukraine to
have German-quality roads and at least
Polish-level salaries, but you don’t get
that just by electing “ordinary” people.Yet Zelensky is little better, said
Florian Kellermann inDeutschlandfunk
(Berlin).Hecomes across as terribly
naive, talking as if everything will be
fine if only honest people can be found
to staff the administration. But instead
of moving quickly to break the power
of the oligarchs, as he promised, he’s
doing deals with them–last month,
he “proudly” disclosed that he’d wonacommitment from a
billionaire to buy 200 ambulances for children’s clinics. At
least Kremlin propagandists can now stop scaremongering that
Ukraine is ruled bya“fascist junta” and ultra-nationalists, said
Kirill Martynov inNovaya Gazeta (Moscow).What junta ever
held free elections and then quietly went into opposition? As for
ultra-nationalists, they didn’t winasingle seat. Nor can Moscow
go on portraying Ukraine’s rulers as warmongers. The so-called
war party–Poroshenko-aligned MPs who urgedafightback in
the Donbas region and ran on “army, language and faith” –
was totally eclipsed in this election. Prosperity and an end to
corruption is what voters care about now. Let’s hope they get it.President Zelensky: “terribly naive”?Bye-bye oligarchs? Ukraine votes for “ordinary people”