Presseurop |

Germany | Ossis return home (Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw)

Wed, 09 May 2012 13:14:10 +0100

Having moved to the West in search of better jobs, residents of the former GDR are now returning home to take advantage of an up-turn in the economy of Germany’s eastern states, which has come in the wake of years of sluggish growth. (Article)

Germany | Will the Pirates democratise Europe? (Die Welt, Berlin)

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:29:21 +0100

Overnight the Pirate Party has become a third political force in Germany, and has become much more than a dragnet trawling protest voters. According to Die Welt, the Pirate Party could be the pioneer of a new democracy in the post-industrial era, and indeed throughout Europe. (Article)

Ireland | Closing time on the nation's pub culture (The Irish Times, Dublin)

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:44:08 +0100

With one closing every two day, the pub, once Ireland’s number-one attraction, is suffering a steep decline. But it’s not just a deep and long recession that’s to blame, but also cultural change, reports the Irish Times. (Article)

Emigration | "Good life does not come easily in Lithuania" (Veidas, Vilnius)

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:39:58 +0100

In a time of crisis with high unemployment, young Lithuanians are following in the footsteps of their emigrant ancestors. Tens of thousands have left the country in search of a better life, mainly in the British Isles and Scandinavia. The weekly Veidas reports: (Article)

Netherlands | I'm 15, I'll start a business (De Groene Amsterdammer, Amsterdam)

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:59:37 +0100

Whether it’s making iPhone apps or delivering organic food on a bicycle, junior entrepreneurs are creating their own lucrative business in the Netherlands, with or without assistance from their school. (Article)

Ireland | Squatters filling the ghost estates (The Guardian, London)

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:21:15 +0100

A new movement is occupying some of the hundreds of properties abandoned since the crash of 2008, a protest not just against homelessness, but also against the speculation that led to Ireland’s spectacular economic collapse. (Article)

Spain | Low-cost life for all (El País, Madrid)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:01:38 +0100

With the crisis in full swing, and pay packages as low as 1000 euros gross per month, there's no lifestyle choice other than that of austerity. It's a trend that's changing consumer habits. (Article)

Poland | Fear and loathing on November 11 (Newsweek Polska, Warsaw)

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:50:54 +0100

The annual Independence March organised in Warsaw on November 11 by right wing and nationalist groups is likely to grind to a halt this year. The left wing 11 November Coalition is urging its supporters to block the march, and confrontation seems unavoidable. (Article)

Austerity Europe | Greeks driven back to the land (The Independent, London)

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:00:33 +0100

As strikes bring the country to a halt, and politicians dither over the fate of the eurozone's most stricken economy, Greeks are being forced to turn back the clock to make ends meet. A report from the island of Naxos, in the Cyclades. (Article)

Occupy Movement | A hashtag revolution (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt)

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:20:41 +0100

The “Occupy” movements springing up around the world are a new form of political participation: the unorganised citizen is calling for an ongoing dialogue with institutions such as political parties and trade unions, from which authority is slowly draining. (Article)

Poland | Palikot power transforms national politics

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:43:26 +0100

“Palikot’s revolution”, headlines Wprost weekly on the movement which garnered over 10 percent of the vote in the recent Polish election, making it the third largest party in the Sejm. Leading with a frontpage photo of three Palikot’s Movement (RP) leaders – founder Janusz Palikot, transsexual Anna Grodzka and gay activist Robert Biedroń – the Warsaw weekly asks: “Will they change politics, the Church and the Poles?”. Certainly, all three have huge political ambitions. Their first proposal – to remove the wooden cross hanging in Poland's parliament – has already caused a stir and a wave of criticism from the mainstream parties. According to a poll published in Gazeta Wyborcza, most Poles (71%) did not like the idea either.

But Janusz Palikot is not easily discouraged. In an interview with Wprost he hints that his goal is not to create “another political party” but to “carry out changes”. “Polish society will be incredibly transformed, even if we don’t enter any government or implement anything because our proposals will be voted down. It is going to be a normalisation of otherness on a gigantic scale”, enthuses Palikot who calls for public funding of IVF treatment, a clear separation of the Church from the state, legalisation of gay and lesbian unions, liberalisation of abortion laws as well as marijuana legalisation – a message that met with a surprisingly warm reception from an electorate long considered conservative. “Not only has Palikot tapped into a strong anti-clerical sentiment in Polish society, he has also caught a wind of change blowing from the West”, concludes philosopher and columnist Marcin Król.

(News in brief)

Balkans | Ikea, a Bulgarian idea of luxury (Standart, Sofia)

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:21:25 +0100

The long awaited opening of the Swedish brand’s first shop in Sofia has been spoiled by controversy over prices — an opportunity for Bulgarian journalist Martin Karbovski to poke fun at his compatriots’ taste for novelty at all costs... (Article)

Religion | Pope oversees a dwindling church

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:01:24 +0100

“The Church dies in Europe,” headlines Tygodnik Powszechny on the occasion of Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany starting September 22. Statistics published by the German episcopate tell it all: in 2010 over 180,000 Germans left the Church while only 170,000 were baptised. Also, the number of vocations has been dwindling: in 2009, 120 candidates entered the seminary; a year later there were just 79 of them. Similar trends are observed in countries like Spain or Ireland, once considered Europe’s Catholic vanguard. “Less churchgoers, less vocations, less support for the Christian ethic, less Vatican authority”, writes the Polish Catholic journal, noting that sex abuse scandals have “swept away the Irish Church” and made many people turn their back on the Catholic Church. “Churches of the Old Continent should get used to the fact that the age of the masses is over and they will not, hand in hand with the rulers, convert and baptise the crowd”, observes priest and theologian Paul M. Zulehner.

(News in brief)

Society | Immobile Europe (Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm)

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:29:48 +0100

Upping sticks to work elsewhere is a natural part of life in the United States. But not in Europe, where people are often afraid to move away from their home turf. A Swedish journalist argues that this lack of mobility is a handicap in the current crisis. (Article)

Northern Ireland | Minister rages against bras for children

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:32:10 +0100

“Bras on sale for girls as young as seven,” headlines the Belfast Telegraph. Airing concerns about “the sexualisation of children”, the Belfast daily leads with news that a number of clothes chains in the Northern Irish capital are “selling padded bras to enhance the figures of girls as young as seven, despite concern from children’s rights groups.” The bras have provoked the ire of Northern Irish minister Arlene Foster, “a mother of three children under 11”, who has called on the Northern Irish assembly “to step in to stop this practice.” To the south, meanwhile, shops in the Irish Republic are selling “bra and knicker sets for three to four year olds”. The Telegraph notes that logos on knickers include "And your problem is . . .?", "I don't ask for much, just my own way!" and "Whatever". Said a spokeswoman for the Belfast Feminist Network – “Selling products like this to pre-teens is about conditioning young girls into the stereotyped roles society forces them into.”

(News in brief)

United Kingdom | Austerity increases homelessness threat

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 12:46:36 +0100

“Homelessness could spread to middle class”, headlines the Guardian, following a report by Crisis, a UK charity. The 120 page study points to “a direct link between the downturn and rising homelessness as cuts to services and draconian changes to benefits shred the traditional welfare safety net,” the London daily reports. The study shows that last year 44,160 people were classified as homeless and placed in social housing, an increase of 10% on the previous year and the first increase in almost a decade. In 2010, another 189,000 people – up 14% on 2009 – were also placed in temporary accommodation – such as small hotels and B&Bs. The charity also identifies a "hidden homeless" trend –where families are forced to share one room rather than a flat. 630,000 households are described as "overcrowded". The reports states that, “Any significant reduction of the welfare safety net in the UK as a result of coalition reforms may, of course, bring the scenario of middle-class homelessness that much closer.”

Meanwhile, Le Monde reveals that the population in France living below the poverty line (€954 per month) has risen in the last years from 7.8 million (13% of the population) in 2008 to 8.2 millions in 2009 (13.5%), according to a survey by the French national statistics institute. A trend that has been worsening in the last two years, a senior representative for the Secours Populaire charity tells the Parisian daily.

(News in brief)

Central Europe | Ex-GDR, a new land for Poles and Czechs (Lidové noviny , Prague)

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:51:05 +0100

More and more Poles are settling in the former East Germany, filling the void left by the flight of East Germans to the West following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Lidové noviny is calling on Czechs to do the same, and so to help blur the borders of central Europe. (Article)

Romania | The totalitarian tourist trail

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:30:19 +0100

Following the example of China and North Korea, Romania will soon have its own tourist trail devoted to the glories of Communism. More than 20 years after the fall of Nicolae Ceauşescu, the country’s ministry of tourism has announced the creation of a "propaganda itinerary," which will take in specific places that figured large in the life of the "Conducător." According to the minister concerned, the initiative is justified, among other reasons, by the fact that "50 per cent of Romanians, who believe that life was better under his rule, regret the passing of the dictator," while "40 per cent believe that Communism was a good thing."

For columnist Sabina Fati, "Dictators continue to exert an appeal even after their death. However, democratic governments avoid entering into a spiral of posthumous fascination.” She also points out that tourist initiatives that focus on dictatorships in other countries, like Germany and Serbia, tend to be "organised by the far left – the glorification of the Berlin Wall – or private entrepreneurs – Tito’s 'Blue Train'". However, "No government minister in Madrid would ever dream of creating a tourist trail that followed in the footsteps of Franco."

(News in brief)

Latin America | The Spanish brain-drain (El País, Madrid)

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:17:27 +0100

Faced with record unemployment and poor job prospects, a generation of young Spaniards is decamping to the economic boomtowns of Latin America (Article)

Greece | Life in a time of Troika (To Vima, Athens)

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:13:29 +0100

Gone are the days of going out and shopping, trouble-free travel and early evening drinks in outdoor cafes. Bills and surgery have been postponed, and no more private tuition for the kids. Laid-low by the crisis, Greeks have learned to rein in their lifestyles, and everyday living in the country has become a sad affair. (Article)

Malta | Voters say yes to divorce

Mon, 30 May 2011 11:15:06 +0100

“Yes to divorce,” headlines the Times of Malta following the May 28 referendum in which 52.6% of ballots cast were in favour of introducing divorce on the island. A conservative, Catholic country, Malta is the last EU member states to lift the ban on divorce. The present law only authorises separations or the annulment of the marriage. Re-marriage is possible but only after a long procedure which pushes those Maltese that wish to divorce to do so abroad. “What is certain is that the outcome opens a new page in the history of Maltese society and its approach to tackling the ever-growing problem of failed marriages,” notes the Times of Malta editorial.

“The people haven’t just voted ‘Yes’ to divorce, they have signalled they are happy to embrace the modern age. The new Malta isn’t condemning and stifling, it is relaxed and open,” agrees the Malta Star. For the Times of Malta: “Now the focus shifts to Parliament and its members who have the duty and grave responsibility of translating the people’s mandate into legislation that encapsulates the main elements listed in the referendum question but also attain that about which there is national consensus: strengthening marriage and the family”. Finally, the paper concludes: “It is time for MPs to stand up and be counted, literally”.

(News in brief)

Greece | Back home with mum (De Volkskrant, Amsterdam)

Tue, 03 May 2011 16:14:09 +0100

Confronted by unemployment and the economic crisis, young Greeks are being forced to give up their nascent independence and return home to live with their parents, where they benefit from the same ethos of familial support whose excesses have contributed much to the crisis. (Article)

Lifestyle | Hour of the hypocrites (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich)

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:47:17 +0100

Can we reconcile a Western lifestyle with respecting the environment? Hardly, says the "Sueddeutsche Zeitung". Voting for Green parties is not enough to resolve the contradictions faced by a growing number of Europeans, as evidenced by the Green surge in Germany. (Article)

Denmark | End of line for Christiania's flower children (Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw)

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:43:17 +0100

Freetown Christiania is no longer free. After forty years, the last hippie enclave in Europe is bowing to the laws of the free market, writes Gazeta Wyborcza. (Article)

United Kingdom | Why drugs are on a downer (The Guardian, London)

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:19:51 +0100

In Britain, the number of young people taking drugs has fallen by 30% in the last fifteen years. Is the drop due to declining quality, or tales of celebrity breakdown? (Article)

Portugal | The new wild west

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 13:51:56 +0100

“Because they are unemployed, because they want to consume, or simply because they wish to take advantage of the high tide, the Portuguese, are selling what they have at home, sometimes what’s been there for generations.” So reports Lisbon magazine Visão on the current national craze for selling gold. Currently standing at €34 per gramme, gold has tripled in value in the last five years, growing 30% in 2010 alone, and prompting an increase number of businesses selling the precious. The National Mint reports that 709 new requests, mainly to retail gold, were made in 2010, up 150% since 2008. However, complaints are multiplying that the gold market is a new Wild West, with little legislation, and many tax loopholes. The unemployed and those most under pressure with the country’s failing economy are the most exploited, the magazine reports. Many are selling family heirlooms for the paltry sum of €18 euros per gramme. “This is only comparable to the real estate boom of 1995 to 2002, when it was even more profitable than drug trafficking," jokes a senior at ASAE, a division of the national police.

(News in brief)

Euthanasia | The taste for death (Wprost, Warsaw)

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:31:44 +0100

Many Europeans are looking abroad for help to end their lives, while more and more countries are allowing euthanasia. Is the penchant for death winning the battle against the right to life? asks the Polish weekly Wprost. (Article)

Tourism | Chinese are the new Americans (La Repubblica, Rome)

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:34:03 +0100

Buoyed by the emergence of China’s middle class, the growing wave of travelers from China could revitalise the European tourist industry. But businesses in the sector have yet to adapt to their new customers. (Article)

Lifestyle | Multi-locality, a new reality (Respekt, Prague)

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:24:38 +0100

A growing number of Europeans enjoy parallel lives - living in Prague and working in Paris or living in Vienna while having a girlfriend in Stockholm. Known as having “multiple habitats,” the phenomenon has piqued the interest of sociologists. (Article)

Cities | Gated communities, German style (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich)

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:16:15 +0100

Rich man, poor man: as the wealth gap widens in Berlin, the well-heeled are fencing themselves in. They feel safe in their gated communities – if only it weren’t for the neighbours…. The envy. And the protest. (Article)

Spain | Fuentes-Sánchez, or Sánchez-Fuentes?

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:38:18 +0100

“Government unleashes war on surnames”, leads El Periódico de Catalunya, on the ruling socialist party’s attempt to extend its “equality policy” to family names. In Spain where names are frequently double-barrelled – the father’s surname appearing before the mother’s – a reform allowing parents to choose a child’s surname order was rejected by parliament on 3 November. The Barcelona daily defends the measure as "a step towards equality between men and women", but considers that it would be wiser "to establish a lottery to decide the surname position", as is the case in Germany. The Spanish reform, in the case of no agreement between parents, ruled that surnames would have been attributed in alphabetical order.

(News in brief)

Democracy | Tea Party crosses the Atlantic (Público, Lisbon)

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:09:45 +0100

Will Barack Obama hold out against the reactionary groundswell? The US mid-term elections on 2 November also have a bearing on Europe, where grass-roots anxieties are fuelling the rise of populist parties. (Article)

Health care | Poland leads in medical tourism

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:59:51 +0100

“Medical tourism has become Poland’s specialty”, Rzeczpospolita excitedly leads on its front page. In the first half-year, some 120,000 foreigners visited Poland to use medical services, spending over €0.25 billion. What has been driving this boom? “The main draws are competitive prices, especially for dental and plastic surgery services”, explains the daily. A dental implant costs close to three times as much in the UK than in Poland. However, the largest group of “medical tourists” are visitors from Germany.

(News in brief)

Democracy | The Germany that says Nein (Der Spiegel, Hamburg)

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:23:23 +0100

A wave of protest has overrun Germany. People everywhere are coming out against politicians’ pet projects. Democracy seems alive and kicking, but oftentimes self-interest and the general welfare collide head-on. And this naysaying spree could stymie the country’s modernisation. (Article)

Germany / France | Can a city live down a dark past? (La Vanguardia, Barcelona)

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:26:38 +0100

How does a city that symbolises Nazism or French collaboration bear such an enduring burden? Nuremberg and Vichy are each struggling in their own way to live down the past. (Article)

Job market | To be young... and doomed

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:44:49 +0100

"Europe fears for its lost generation," the Czech daily Hospodářské noviny declares, leading with the claim that the level of youth unemployment is now the highest since the second world war. A report by the confirms that five million young Europeans were without work in 2009, with Spain the worst hit, with 40% of young people jobless, followed by the Baltic states. The Prague daily blames the economic crisis, the rigidity of the labour market and the lengthening of the retirement age for forcing 18 to 25 year olds out of the labour market. Even if it is not yet among the worst hit, the generation who grew up in the UK during the boom years are now confronted with the worst period of austerity since the Thatcher years of the early 1980s, The Independent reports. With unemployment spiralling, and universities forced to make brutal cuts, tens of thousands of student are likely to be left without a place when the new term starts in September. "Who would want to be 18 today?" it asks, when even those who get into college are likely to emerge into a depressed job market weighed down with debt.

(News in brief)

Portugal | Lisbon, the empty capital (El País, Madrid)

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:41:57 +0100

Rundown buildings and the high price of a square metre are driving away young people and transforming the Portuguese capital into a ghost town to the point where it would be completely devoid of life were it not for the annual influx of students brought to the city by the Erasmus programme. (Article)

Spain | Barcelona bans burqa in public places

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:23:37 +0100

Barcelona’s mayor, Jordi Hereu, yesterday announced “a decree to ban the use of the burqa and the niqab in public buildings”, reports El Periódico de Catalunya. The ‘sudden’ announcement marks change in the city council’s traditional policy, which was "to convince rather than to exclude immigrants". The alleged reason behind this ban is citizens’ security. Yet this “surprising" decision “is related to Hereu’s wish to build a strong and leadership image”, now he has a weak public support and after "rumours suggesting that he will be soon replaced". El Periódico also considers that "the ban may be counterproductive and will create more problems that those it seeks to solve", although it defends the need to ban the burqa in public buildings like libraries, markets or sport centres. Barcelona is not the first city in Spain to ban the Islamic clothing, as Lleida prohibited its use some weeks ago.

(News in brief)

Economic crisis | Disunited in stereotypes (Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm)

Thu, 27 May 2010 15:11:13 +0100

"United in diversity": for many years the motto of the EU held sway on a continent that had been marked by war. However, the economic crisis has prompted a resurgence of age-old European antagonisms. (Article)

Italy | Vampire haunted Volterra (Der Spiegel, Hamburg)

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:18:00 +0100

For many years this small Tuscan town has attracted visitors drawn to its Etruscan past and medieval monuments. But in the last few months, it has become the haunt of thousands of teenage fans of the Twilight saga, whose fictional vampires are supposed to live here. (Article)

Drugs | Mephedrone, the agony and the Ecstasy (De Volkskrant, Amsterdam)

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 12:22:44 +0100

Mephedrone - otherwise known as miaow-miaow - is increasingly prevalent on the European nightclub scene. The drug, which is legal and easy to obtain, is now considered dangerous after the recent deaths of young users in the United Kingdom and Sweden — which is why several countries are currently planning to ban it. (Article)

Denmark | Beggar thy frauding neighbour (Politiken, Copenhagen)

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:00:48 +0100

Following the example of Copenhagen, more and more Danish local authorities are encouraging local citizens to inform on neighbours involved in benefit fraud. Politiken deplores a shift in policy, which it believes will undermine the rule of law. (Article)

Bulgaria | Welcome the Greeks bearing euros (Standart, Sofia)

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 13:00:42 +0100

Hard hit by the recession, the bargain hunting citizens of northern Greece are spending their euros across the border in neighbouring Bulgaria, where business is booming for local traders and dentists. (Article)

Monarchy | Royals still rattling their jewellery (Rzeczpospolita, Warsaw)

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:08:36 +0100

Every year European royal families receive more and more public money, while the nature of their personal fortunes often remains a well-guarded secret. In the wake of controversy sparked by recent revelations about undisclosed assets belonging to the King of Belgium, Rzeczpospolita reports that the question of regal coffers and what they should contain is once again in the news. (Article)

Marriage | Divorce European style

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:55:09 +0100

"Let's divorce, Italian style, darling," headlines Mladá fronta DNES in the wake of a 24 March proposal by the European Commission to introduce new legislation to facilitate "international divorce." Under the terms of the new law, cross-border couples will soon be able to choose the jurisdiction in which to apply for a divorce, if one of the spouses has links with the country. "Every year, some 300,000 transnational couples dutifully say their 'I do's' and roughly half of these marriages culminate in divorce," notes the Czech daily. “The proposal has been prompted an acknowledgement of the need for "enhanced cooperation" in divorce procedures requested by ten states (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, and Slovenia) where cross-border divorces are a growing phenomenon.

(News in brief)

Marriage | All the nice girls love a Russian (Lidové noviny , Prague)

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:47:27 +0100

Women from the ex-Soviet Union have been a boon to international dating services for some time now. Now it’s the men’s turn to beguile European women, observes Lidové noviny in amazement. (Article)

Romania | Wombs for rent

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:29:03 +0100

The economic crisis and rising unemployment have prompted the appearance of unusual small ads in the back pages of the Romanian press, where "womb for hire" notices can now be found alongside offers of lungs and kidneys for sale. Under the headline "Surrogate mother rents womb," Adevărul reports that a 25-year-old married woman and the mother of one daughter in Brasov is offering to carry a child in exchange for 28,000 euros – a service that has already attracted interest from a sterile couple. The case of Andreea P. has highlighted the distressing situation of young mothers who are unable to find jobs, and the absence of Romanian legislation to regulate surrogate motherhood. Children born to surrogate mothers can be classified as abandoned at birth and put up for adoption, but there is no guarantee that adoption services will automatically grant rights to couples which include their biological fathers.

(News in brief)

Germany | Sandwiches, new star of the crisis

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:00:48 +0100

The crisis has landed on German workers’ lunches. According to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association, reports the Süddeutsche Zeitung, staff canteens are the eating establishments that have been hardest hit by belt-tightening in the labour force. Traditionally considered the best off in the catering sector, their turnover dropped 6.2% in 2009 on the year before, coming to €5.2 billion. The reason is that many companies have decided to stop subsidising staff meals as part of their cost-cutting efforts amid the current recession, and their employees are changing their eating habits. As a result, the more expensive “organic” and “international cuisine” sections in company cafeterias are no longer all the rage. Already reputed the most penny-pinching nation in Europe when it comes to food, “Germans are now foregoing hot meals in favour of a throwback to a less affluent age: the home-made sandwich,” observes the Munich daily.

(News in brief)

Greece | Athens forced to reinvent itself (La Vanguardia, Barcelona)

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:14:45 +0100

The urban renewal project in the Greek capital has been hit by new government measures designed to remedy the disastrous state of the nation's finances. Without funding, city planners must explore other options, starting with the fight against cars and chaotic development. (Article)

Poland | Germans ain't so scary after all

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:53:10 +0100

Twenty years ago, merely three percent of Poles thought Poland had no enemies. Today, that view is shared by 20 percent of those surveyed, daily Rzeczpospolita happily reports. The biggest change occurred in the public image of Germans, who were seen as a threat by 88 percent of Poles in 1990. Today, that number has dropped to less than 14 percent. The "phasing out" of national fears is going pretty well for a country "with a bitter history of partitions, bloody wars against Hitler and Stalin, and a degrading communist regime controlled by Moscow," the paper’s op-ed piece reads. Poles feel more confident. "'Polnische Wirtschaft' is now the only economy in Europe that avoided recession, Polish troops are doing better than their German colleagues in Afghanistan, and life in Warsaw or Poznań is by no means worse than the one in Berlin or Munich." All this does not mean that Polish-German relations are a picnic – the chief differences remain, like the building of the Nord Stream gas pipeline or the Centre Against Expulsions. "But since we are not afraid of them anymore, let us speak openly and directly about what is bothering us. And let us finally beat them at football," the daily concludes.

(News in brief)