How’s this for a misleading headline from the BBC?

Paris Airport Bars Muslim Staff 

More than 70 Muslim workers at France’s main airport have been stripped of their security clearance for allegedly posing a risk to passengers.

The staff at Charles de Gaulle airport, including baggage handlers, are said to have visited terrorist training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

At first glance I, and others it seems, read this to mean that the airport had introduced a blanket policy on Muslim staff.  Far from it.

The BBC’s headline is a shame, because it distracts from the questions that should be raised by this important story - the most important of which relates to the sheer number of staff involved.

72 is a massive number of staff.  Either Charles de Gaulle was infiltrated on a massive scale by terrorists (which, lets be honest, is unlikely), or the authorities have made a huge mistake by putting two and two together to reach 72, or the authorities are taking an ultra-cautious line and suspending anyone who they think might pose even the merest possibility of a risk.

Which brings me to the oddest part of this story:

However, about a dozen other workers who have been identified as security risks still have access to sensitive areas of the airport because under French law they must be allowed an opportunity to respond to the charges before they are suspended.

I really find it hard to believe that, faced with a real and immediate security threat to their skies, the French would allow the niceties of French employment law to hinder their security operations.  Which leads me to believe that, actually, these employees aren’t actually any kind of real and immediate threat.  The fact that none of them have been arrested would seem to add to my suspicions. 

I wonder how many staff there are at the airport in total, and how many of those are Muslim.  I’d be very interested to know what percentage of the workforce, and in particular what percentage of the Muslim workforce this affects.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a mass of lawsuits in the coming weeks and months from disgruntled employees.   

Categories: Europe
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A Berlin opera house has cancelled performances of a Mozart opera, Idomeno, because of fears that it might offend Muslims, and that they could not guarantee the safety of their audiences.

In the ‘offending’ scene which already caused audience walk-outs mainly amongst Christians when it was premiered almost three years ago, King Idomeneo produces the heads of Poseidon, Jesus, Buddha and the Prophet Mohammed from a bloody sack, and displays them on four chairs.

Fascinating that they don’t fear offending followers of Jesus, Poseidon or Buddha. 

Anyway, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has shown some backbone and roundly criticised their decision:

“We must be careful that we do not increasingly shy away out of fear of violent radicals,” Merkel told the Hannover Neue Presse. “Self-censorship out of fear is not tolerable.”

Which will be equally fascinating news for those who regularly condemn Europeans for being lily-livered appeasers.

(By the way - Idomeno is set in Crete.  I’m going to Crete in a few days.  Which is why posting this has, oddly, put me in a holiday mood).

Categories: Europe
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The Pope, apparently, should not be allowed to say that Catholicism is superior to other religions: 

Yahya Pallavicini, vice-president of one of Italy’s main Islamic organisations, the Islamic Religious Community […] expressed a fear that the Pope’s comments demonstrated a “Christian Catholic exclusivism” - a belief that Catholicism was superior to other religions.

In the words of Rebecca, who sent me the link - “He’s the POPE for gods sake - if he can’t think Catholicism is a superior religion, then the world has truly gone nuts”.

Categories: Europe
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Basque separatist and terrorist organisation ETA shows that home grown European terrorism is still alive and kicking:

“Until we achieve independence and socialism in the Basque country, we reaffirm our commitment to keep taking up arms firmly.

The fight is not a thing of the past. It is the present and the future.”

They’ve also demonstrated that they’ve learnt very little from the Madrid train bombing. 

Categories: Europe
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Riots have broken out in Budapest, following the Hungarian Prime Minister’s admission that his government had consistently lied to the country since their election. 

The BBC reports that more that 50 people have been injured in the riots, and protestors smashed their way into the state television headquarters, causing the station to go off the air overnight.

The people of Hungary have every right to be furious at their government, which has betrayed them.  It’s right that they are able to take to the streets to express their anger.  But recourse to violence by some elements of the crowd is unacceptable when so many other options are open to them.

I see a parallel here to the Islamic world’s violent response to the perceived offenses of the Pope last week, and those Danish cartoons of a few months ago.  Many in the blogosphere were quick (and correct) to condemn this violent reaction, but some went further, saying that such riots were not a part of European and US political discourse. 

It’s difficult to condemn people for rioting over their religious beliefs, when the citizens of one of Europe’s capital cities are smashing their way into TV stations because their belief in the power of democracy has been betrayed.

I wonder how bloggers will react to yesterday’s riots in Budapest, and whether any will see any similarities to Islamic riots?

Categories: Europe, Global politics
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It’s been a busy weekend for election watchers around Europe.

Sweden voted in a new centre-right alliance, their (very) narrow victory breaking 12 years of Social Democrat control.  A Fistful of Euros has covered the election with not one, not two, but three posts - here, here and here.

The German regional elections brought an unexpected success for the far-right, where the National Democratic Party (NPD) won 7.3% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.  That takes them comfortably over the 5% needed to get a seat in the regional parliament.  Germany isn’t all far-right extremists, though, and the SDP managed a comfortable win in the Berlin elections.  The local SDP are led by Klaus Wowereit, who just happens to be gay, which has prompted A Fistful of Euros (who else?) to ask is Germany is ready for its first gay Chancellor? 

And, finally, the big news from Moldova is that the citizens of breakaway republic Trans-Dneister have turned out in overwhelming numbers in a referendum on the future of their statelet.  More than 97% of those who voted hated Moldova so much that they  so much that they would like to form a political union with Russia.  The Moldovan Foreign Minister clearly thinks the vote was rigged, and has refused to accept the result of the referendum.  Sensible man - it’s safe to say that any result of more than 90% in an election can automatically be discounted by people who know how to count.  Russia has remained rather tight-lipped.  Not all that surprisingly - the prospect of political union with a dirt-poor criminal statelet isn’t exactly something to be shouting about.

Categories: Europe, Former Soviet Union
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Refreshing honesty from a politician - Ferenc Gyurcsany, the Hungarian Prime Minister has admitted that his party not only lied in order to get elected, but had failed miserably while in office.  Here’s what he had to say at a meeting with fellow Socialist MPs:

“There is not much choice. There is not, because we screwed up. Not a little, a lot. No European country has done something as boneheaded as we have.

“Evidently, we lied throughout the last year-and-a-half, two years. It was totally clear that what we are saying is not true.

“You cannot quote any significant government measure we can be proud of, other than at the end we managed to bring the government back from the brink. Nothing. If we have to give account to the country about what we did for four years, then what do we say?”

The Prime Minister has posted the entire transcript of the entire meeting on his own blog (in Hungarian, of course), a move which some cynics are claiming demonstrates that the PM himself was behind the leak. 

So, good press for honesty, and for blogs, but not so good for Hungarian Socialists. 

Categories: Blogging, Europe
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Uldis Ozoliņš explains the state of party politics in Latvia today before embarking on an explanation of Latvia’s voting system for the uninitiated.

Most voting systems in the world do not allow crossing out of a candidate’s name.

Suffice to say, it’s complicated, especially for those of us who are used to first past the post systems.

Categories: Europe, Former Soviet Union
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George Bush has admitted that the CIA has detained terrorist suspects in prisons around the world, although he didn’t go so far as to admit that many were in Eastern Europe.  Bush explained:

“Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that al Qaeda and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland. By giving us information about terrorist plans we could not get anywhere else, this program has saved innocent lives.”

That’s good.  Hard to argue with a positive outcome, so I wont. 

Instead, I’ll ask - what is it about global CIA prisons that makes them a better choice than US prisons?

I can only surmise that CIA prisons in Europe are a better choice because they are further away from the arms of the US justice system.  Prisoners in these shadowy jails can be interrogated in a somewhat more liberal manner than they could be back in the States.

Out of sight, out of mind, as it were.

Categories: Europe, Global politics, US politics
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Via the Independent:

No person shall, in the course of business, import into England potatoes which he knows to be or has reasonable cause to suspect to be Polish potatoes

Don’t believe me - go check the government’s website for the full law, which was passed way back in 2004.

What has the Polish potato ever done to hurt Johnny Englishman???

(Oh, and while you’re busy sniggering at the stupidity of it all, consider this - in Tony Blair’s government has created a staggering 3,000 new criminal offences during its nine years in office).

Categories: Europe, UK
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Henrik, from Hungarian Accent blog reports the worrying story of a policeman blogger from Budapest whose blog - Police - has closed down mysteriously, and who appears to be missing:

“At Nyugati square we waited for an hour for Police, with whom we would have had a meeting scheduled for 10 at the rotating clock, but as he did not arrived by 11, we went into some pizzeria instead to have breakfast and to warm up as we were freezing. I don’t know what could have happened to Police, he is unreachable via phone all day and his blog interestingly is erased either by Freeblog or by himself, although I consider that latter option unlikely. Anyway I hope nothing happened to him and he will show up by evening.”

Henrik points out that information about ths police bloggers disappearance is scarce, but is nonetheless worried.

The Northern Irish Magyar adds a little context to the case, suggesting that offending the wrong people in Hungary can have serious consequences:

Hungarian “Businessmen” or politicians are not great believers in the concept of an independent and feisty media, or actually any general exchange of information.

Couple of wrong words in the wrong open forum and before you can mutter “freedom of speech” you’ll be hauled up in front of the Biro or be making an unscheduled appoitment with several baseball bats down a back street.

If true, this puts the recent story about a British police blogger who closed because he was worried he would face disciplinary action into perspective. And even more alarming perhaps - this is happening in a EU member state.
Whether there is anything to this story, or whether it’s all a big mix up, it’s probably too early to say for sure.  But I’ll keep an eye out for news.

Categories: Europe
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When was the last time you saw four Eastern European clubs make it to the last eight of a European football tournament?

• Sevilla v Zenit St Petersburg
• Basle v Middlesbrough
• Rapid Bucuresti v Steaua Bucuresti
• Levski Sofia v Schalke 04

And what about the Bucharest derby?  That’s going to be a serious grudge match, no?

Categories: Europe, Sport
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From the BBC comes this report of Italiam Prime Minister Belusconi storming out of a live tv interview - apparently Berlusconi took offense at a question about his business dealings:

“You can’t tell me what to do,” he said as the conversation descended into bickering and he accused her of bias.

“This is my show, I’ll decide the questions,” Ms Annunziata retorted.

She told him he was “not used to taking journalists’ questions”.

You know, every time parliamentarians in Russia, or South Korea get into a fight, or storm out of an interview, we laugh at them.  ‘Oh, democracy is new in that part of the world,’ we say.  ‘They’ll get the hang of it.’  Or the horrendously condescending ‘They’re a bit tempramental over there, aren’t they?”
But what is Italy’s excuse?  Why on earth do the people of a leading industrial nation, with a long established democracy, put up with the antics of this idiot who again and again brings their country into disrepute?

Categories: Europe
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Former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was found dead in his jail cell this morning:

BBC News24 are reporting that he died was of natural causes, although they also mentioned that he had recently been trying to avoid taking medication for his heart condition.

His death is probably the best news for Serbia’s political development in many a year, certainly since his overthrow. Instead of a real live political martyr rotting away in the Hague, Serbian nationalists will have to focus on the far less attractive figure of a dead political martyr, rotting in his grave.

And good news, to be honest, for the West, whose overly earnest attempts to bring Milosevic to justice in the Hague but, at the same time, to be ridiculously fair to the defendant, have been made a mockery of by Milosevic’s (successful) attempts to drag out his trial for years on end.

Anyway, the man’s dead now. Let’s all move on.

Update: Neil Clark isn’t happy.  He titles his post ‘Death of a Political Prisoner‘  and strongly hints that the Hague is responsible by ommission for his death - apparently, they’ve been ignoring medical warnings that he was about to have a heart attack.

Milosevic’s only crime- as I have said no many occasions, was getting in the way of The Empire. For doing that, he has paid a very heavy price. May he Rest in Peace.

Well, it’s an opinion, I suppose.

Categories: Europe
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A very odd story indeed.

A Slovakian organisation arranged an auction of satirical cartoons of Alexander Lunkashenko, the authoritarian President of Belarus:

One of the most expensive pictures drawn by SME caricaturist Shooty, became a subject of tough competition between the leader of the Hungarian Coalition Party Béla Bugár and U.S. Ambassador Rodolphe Vallee. Bugár won and bought the picture for 30.000 SKK. He commented that he would give it as a present to British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a joint dinner the same day. Bugár also got the next picture on auction – to give it as a present to the USA President George Bush next week.

Tony and George will, I am sure, be thrilled.

Categories: Europe, Former Soviet Union, UK, US politics
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Montenegro will hold a referendum on EU membership in May, but alarmingly the EU and Montenegran governments are still squabbling over just how the referendum should be organised.

The EU has it’s position.

In a decision that has outraged analysts, Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign policy chief, is insisting that for it to be valid, at least 55% of voters casting ballots must opt for independence. EU foreign ministers are expected to bless the Solana proposal today.

And Montenegro has a rather different position:

But the Montenegrin government has indicated it is against the guidelines. It wants the secession vote to be valid if at least 41 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots. It is not clear whether it would accept the 55 percent approval requirement or whether it would press for approval by a simple majority of those who vote

Both of which, it has to be said, are absolutely barking ways to decide a referendum. 

What on earth is wrong with the old fashioned 50% or 66% requirements?  If you really want to get technical, I suppose you could add a requirement for 50% of the electorate to turn out to make the vote valid.

But to pick numbers like 55% and 41% respectively out of the air is the most blatantly stupid politicking imaginable, and will do nothing for the credibility of the poll, the Montengran government, or the EU. 

Categories: Europe
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From Balkan blogger Eric, a sneak peak at the application form questions you’ll need to answer if you want that dream job at the Croatian Foreign Ministry:

Apparently the examination for job candidates at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs includes, among its 300 questions, items asking people what sort of sexual practices they prefer.

Plus, as an extra-special bonus - in the comments, news from someone who was asked in a job interview whether he had ever entertained thoughts of killing his mother.

Categories: Europe
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Armenia, one of the last enclaves of musical freedom has finally fallen to the might of Eurovision:

So it looks like we’re definitely in the Eurovision song contest this year..and Andre ( who was voted best male singer of 2005 ) will be representing us with a song called “Without Your Love” sung in English, and written by Armen Martirosian - a well known composer and conductor of Jazz orchestra if I’m not mistaken.

This is a huge step for Armenia, as not only has it’s tv network fulfilled broadcasting rules implied by the EBU , it has also, along with Georgia, redefined the broadcasting area of “Europe” which used to exclude Armenia and Georgia, classing them as Asia. Now they are European, or so it seems! The EBU says it has no further plans for expansion, so , we did good!

Although, yes, I will grudgingly admit that conforming to EBU rules is a success story for Armenian broadcasting, and does show the country’s business climate in a positive light.

But still - they could have turned down the offer and gloated about preserving their freedom, couldn’t they?

Categories: Culture, Europe, Former Soviet Union
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Andrew Sullivan writes about the cancellation of the Moscow gay pride parade. In his article - entitled “How Muslim Blackmail Works” - he heavily implies that it was cancelled in large part because of Muslim protests.

While I agree with the key point Andrew making about not self-censoring, I was a little disappointed that the way his post written heavily implied that the parade was cancelled because of Muslim outrage. The exact words he used were

“It was canceled after the chief Muslim leader in Russia warned that marchers would be “bashed” if they dared to walk the streets.”).

Lets be clear about this - parades in Moscow are not cancelled because of pressure from the Muslim community.

While the Muslim community was, in this case, in step with the general consensus in Russia, their opinion had had zero impact on the decision to cancel the parade.  The gay pride parade in Moscow was never going to get approval from the city government, because of general homophobia in Russia, and the hostility of the Russian orthodox church to homsexuality.

Even last year, Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov said that he would never approve the parade:

“If I receive such a letter, I will refuse,” Luzhkov told the Interfax news agency late Friday, explaining that he “guards the Muscovites’ interests, and the capital’s inhabitants would be categorically set against such an initiative.”

Extreme hostility towards gays in the former Soviet Union isn’t uncommon, and there were even problems holding a gay pride parade in Riga, Latvia last summer. Then, even the Latvian Prime Minister felt it appropriate to weigh in:

“For sexual minorities to parade in the very heart of Riga, next to the Doma church, is unacceptable,” he told LNT television on Wednesday.

And this was in the European Union!

Having said that, though, from my own private observations whilst living in Russia (a couple of years ago now), acceptance of homosexuality does seem to be increasing. In the Siberian city of Irkutsk, for example, a major local nightclub used to hold well attended fortnightly gay nights. You definitely wouldn’t want to be caught out on the streets kissing your boyfriend though.

Categories: Culture, Europe, Former Soviet Union, Russia
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Every week in his profiles of leading bloggers, Norm Geras asks:

Do you think you could ever be married to, or in a long-term relationship with, someone with radically different political views from your own?

Some people say yes.  Most say no.

So, it’s nice to see this story of love across the political and national divides in Belgium, although the Belgian public’s reaction doesn’t seem to have been to conciliatory.

HE IS a senior conservative politician, she a young Socialist MP, but it is not only a political clash of allegiances that has turned the love affair between Hendrik Daems and Sophie Pécriaux into such a big scandal in Belgium.

Nor was it the announcement by Daems, 46, that he is divorcing the mother of his five-year-old daughter and having a child by Pécriaux, 38. Their greater crime — strange as it may seem in 21st-century Europe — was loving across a cultural divide between Flemings and Walloons. Daems paid for it last week with his job.

I think it’s great to see, and I can’t wait to see news of the first great love-match between a Tory and Labour MP splashed across the front page of The Times.

I doubt Daem’s soon to be ex-wife is all that thrilled with their union though.

Categories: Europe, UK
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