WBEZ | Europe

Greeks vote against austerity measures

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:57:00 -0500

Europe saw a political shake up this weekend when voters went to the polls in France, Serbia and Greece. Greek voters gave a majority to the center-right New Democracy party. But with only about 19 percent of the vote, they did not win enough seats to take control of parliament. They’ve now got three days to try and form a coalition.

The two parties that were part of the previous coalition government suffered a big loss as voters cast their ballots against austerity measures. The vote split among at least seven parties, unseating socialists and conservatives that have dominated Greek politics. Voters delivered a clear message, they want a change. We’ll got some analysis from Endy Zemenides executive director of Hellenic-American Leadership Council.

Making sense out of a strange winter

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:41:00 -0600

Chicago is having its warmest winter in 80 years, according to The Sun-Times. Meanwhile, Mexico is mired in drought. Europe is experiencing bone-chilling cold in places where snow doesn't usually even fall. In Ukraine alone, an estimated 122 people are reported dead from hypthermia and frostbite.

Today, Worldview tries to make some sense out of this year's anomalous weather around the world with Heidi Cullen. Heidi's a climatologist with the think tank Climate Central and the author of The Weather of the Future.

Heidi Cullen is giving a talk on "The Future of Weather" at Elmhurst College on Thursday, March 1 at 7PM.

The history behind a vote for Scottish independence

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:29:00 -0600

The Scottish government recently announced plans to hold a referendum on independence from Great Britain. Though Scotland has partial self-government, it's been a part of the United Kingdom since 1707.

Today, Worldview tries to unravel the emotional and practical implications of Scottish independence with local Scot Euan Hague. Euan is chair of the geography department at DePaul University.

To read an article by Euan Hague on the culture of the Scottish-American community, click here.

Vocational training vs. college education: Lessons from Europe

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:08:00 -0600

Thanks to the feverish coverage of the European debt crisis, we know that Germany is the economic engine that’s kept the Eurozone afloat. The Germans attribute their success in large part to their dual education system. At a young age, schoolchildren go on tracks that determine whether they’ll receive vocational training to prepare them for employment or go to university.

While the system provides little flexibility, it does deliver on jobs. Germany, as well as Switzerland and Austria — which have similar education models — have the lowest youth unemployment figures in Europe. Young people in countries like France and the U.K., which put a greater emphasis on college degrees, fare much worse. In the U.S., youth unemployment is double that of adults.

Pepper Culpepper, a political science professor at the European University Institute in Florence and editor of the book The German Skills Machine, tells Worldview what the U.S. can learn from foreign educational models.

Greek Prime Minister: Undoing His Father's Legacy

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:41:00 -0500

Greek Prime Minster George Papandreou, who was born and raised in the U.S., belongs to Greece's most important political dynasty — he's the son and grandson of prime ministers.

And yet just two years after he led the Socialist party to victory, his popularity has plummeted, his debt-stricken country is at the heart of the eurozone crisis and he faces the daunting task of dismantling the generous welfare state his father created.

Anti-government protests have been escalating in decibels and numbers. Many demonstrators were once loyalists of the ruling Socialists – but all party flags have disappeared, replaced by posters depicting George Papandreou as an American stooge or an alien from Mars.

Greeks are furious as the government slashes public sector wages and pensions and raises taxes. But the prime minister seems unfazed.

"Many ask me, 'But do you have the support?'" Papandreou said last week in Berlin. "My first answer is, 'That is not my problem.' I've said, I am here to work for my country, save the country, change the country, whether I'm re-elected or not is not my problem."

Papandreou was basking in the applause of a group of German businessmen. This is precisely what triggers the most criticism in Greece: the cosmopolitan prime minister seems more comfortable abroad than in his homeland.

Raised In The U.S.

The 59-year-old Papandreou was born in Minnesota and also lived in California and Massachusetts. He has degrees from Amherst College and Harvard University. His mother was American, and father Andreas, a Greek economics professor at the time, was forced into exile after a military junta took power in 1967.

Perhaps because of his years abroad, George Papandreou's Greek is still inflected with a Midwestern American accent and his bearing is much more reserved than is typical in this Mediterranean society.

Journalist and publisher George Kirtsos has known Papandreou since they both were college students in the U.S., and he says the father and son couldn't be more different.

"Andreas Papandreou was a firebrand socialist, big spender, charismatic politician, let's say, a very capable orator," Kirtsos says. And how does he describe the son? "OK, he's a nice guy, liberal, in the American sense of the word, open-minded but this doesn't make him effective in the, let's say, byzantine environment of Greek politics."

After the fall of the junta, Andreas Papandreou founded Pasok, the Socialist party. Following in the footsteps of his father, George Papandreou, Sr., he was elected prime minister in 1981. Society was polarized by years of civil conflict and decades of right-wing rule.

Father Built Welfare State

But, thanks to Greece's entry into the European Union, the state was suddenly flush with cash. That allowed Andreas Papandreou to create a generous welfare state. Improved education, health care and social mobility also helped heal the political wounds of the past.

Sociologist Despina Papadopoulou says the result was a large middle class that kept Pasok in power for almost 20 of the last 30 years.

Now, with draconian austerity measures, Papadopoulou says, George Papandreou is undoing his father's legacy.

"The paradox is that it is the same ruling party that is destroying the middle class, is destroying the social forces that helped it (gain) access to power and this is our real crisis," Papadopoulou says.

Last year, when Papandreou announced he was seeking a $150 billion international bailout, he declared he was inspired by antiquity. Greece was facing a new Odyssey, he said, but knew how to get back to Ithaca.

Konstantinos Koutsodimos, vice president of the powerful Genop union, is also a Pasok loyalist. Dismayed by the prime minister's severe cutbacks and tax hikes, he wonders whether George the son has an Oedipus complex.

"This is a political patricide," he says. "Papandreou's policy is a complete betrayal. Before being elected, he promised that he would increase the social welfare state. He said he would increase wages, and in just two months after his election he reversed everything, he forgot all his promises."

Many economists here agree that the Greek welfare system has grown too big, is tainted with corruption, and that the massive public sector must be drastically streamlined.

But analysts question whether Papandreou — who has alienated so many Greeks — will be able to deliver. His drive to save the country without social consensus seems to be a Sisyphean task.

Greece's Woes Deliver Fresh Blow To World Markets

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:17:00 -0500

Financial markets in Europe and the United States slumped badly Monday after Greece conceded it will not meet its deficit reduction goals for this year — or next — despite its austerity measures.

Stocks indexes in the U.S., France, Germany and Spain all fell about 2 percent.

The markets were responding to news that the Greek budget, which was sent to Parliament on Monday, showed a deficit this year of 8.5 percent of GDP, well above the 7.6 percent figure Greece agreed to for its bailout program. Greece also said next year's budget is estimated to miss deficit reduction targets set by its European lenders.

Some Greek officials and economists said the news supports their argument that the country cannot possibly cut its way out of debt and needs growth strategies, too. The austerity measures are considered one of the main reasons the Greek economy is set to contract a record 5.5 percent this year.

"If you have any economy which is in free fall, the private sector is de-leveraging, it is cutting its investment and its consumption, and then the state comes along and does the same, then the sum of public consumption, public expenditure and private expenditure will go down," says economist Yanis Varoufakis of the University of Athens.

Greek Bailout Money At Risk

The deficit news could further jeopardize Greece's next installment of bailout money, an 8 billion euro ($11 billion) infusion the country desperately needs in two weeks in order to avoid bankruptcy.

That's because Greece's troika of creditors — the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — have said repeatedly that the government must meet clear deficit reduction targets for Greece to receive its regular installments.

Greece this weekend agreed to cut 30,000 public sector jobs through early retirement and layoffs in a further effort to meet the conditions of lenders.

On Monday, the reaction from Germany, the eurozone's largest economic player, was muted because it's a national holiday and all offices were closed. European finance ministers were meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, and tried to send a message of reassurance that the EU was taking action.

But critics say the EU has been unable to develop a comprehensive strategy. In addition, the critics argue that the EU has been too slow and reactive, and has not been able to ease a crisis that's already seen bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

George Osborne, the finance minister of Britain, which is not in the eurozone, stressed the need for decisive action.

"They need to increase the size and firepower of their financial fund — the bailout fund," said Osborne. "Second, they need to deal with their weak banks, which are a real drag on growth across the European continent. Third, on Greece, they need to decide what they're going to do with Greece and stick by that decision."

French Feminists Say 'Non' To 'Mademoiselle'

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:59:00 -0500

Feminists in France say the Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal has forced the country to confront longstanding sexist attitudes. Buoyed by this new awareness, they are now taking on what they see as one of the most entrenched, if not discreet, barriers to gender equality in France: the word "mademoiselle."

In France, when you fill out a form — whether it's a job application or a parking citation — if you're a woman, you have to choose between madame and mademoiselle.

Too bad if you feel your marital status is nobody's business, there's simply no French equivalent of "Ms."

Now, French feminists are launching a campaign to change that. Marie-Noelle Bas, president of the feminist group Watchdog, says the word "mademoiselle" is no longer relevant.

"In old days, women went from the domination of their father to the domination of their husband. They were mademoiselle when they were girls and madame when they were married. For the men, there is no two states, only monsieur from the youth to the elder," she says.

Climate Right For Change

Mademoiselle, say feminists, separates women into two categories in a manner men aren't subjected to. The corresponding title for males, damoiseau, which translates roughly into squire, disappeared from use nearly a century ago. Feminists say using the generic madame, like monsieur, will create the same rules for both genders. They also claim leaving out mademoiselle will cut down on opportunities for discrimination and harassment.

Bas says France is way behind its neighbors. The Scandinavians no longer delineate between married and unmarried women, and the Germans have dropped fraulein.

The campaigners say even the Spanish have struck senorita from official forms. A new website lets users sign a petition and offers form letters that can be sent to companies and lawmakers to demand that the title mademoiselle be discarded.

Thalia Breton, from the organization Dare Feminism, says the climate is right to launch the assault on mademoiselle.

"People have really woken up about inequalities and sexism since the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair. And we think these issues will be a part of the presidential debate leading up to next May's election," she says.

Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, was arrested in May on accusations he sexually assaulted a hotel maid in New York. The charges were dropped, but he still faces a civil lawsuit brought by the woman, Nafissatou Diallo.

A Compliment Or Not?

Though a few sociologists, writers and philosophers have signed on to the feminists' linguistic cause, the issue isn't being widely discussed. Judging from first reactions on the street, the feminists have their work cut out for them. Monique Wlazlo, 45, who is coming out of a shop where she has just completed a form to get a new cell phone, calls the campaign paranoid.

"As long as no one calls me monsieur I'm fine," she says. "Anyway, we naturally refer to an older, unmarried woman as madame. And if you you're married but don't look your age you might get called mademoiselle. It's flattering one way and less so the other, but that's life," she says.

Simone de Beauvoir's seminal feminist work, The Second Sex, was published 60 years ago. Even so, says Bas, French women have integrated the masculine domination of French society into their very souls.

"It seems normal to them that the men are more important than them," she says.

And aside from that, says Bas, mademoiselle isn't even a compliment, explaining the origins of the word: "Madame, for madame, oiselle in French is the feminine for oiseau. And in ancient French, that means virgin, that means stupid, that means somebody who needs to be married."

Mademoiselle is only a word, says Bas. But it's important to fight sexist words and images because they create the climate of inequality between men and women that can lead to violence, she says.

Feminist Breton sums it up this way: If you were to call a man damoiseau he would laugh in your face. Mademoiselle, she says, is just as ridiculous.

German Lawmakers Pass Expanded Euro Bailout Fund

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:22:00 -0500

Germany's parliament approved a plan Thursday to expand the power of a European bailout fund for troubled countries that use the euro.

The Bundestag, or lower house, passed the bill 523-85 in a vote considered one of the biggest in Chancellor Angela Merkel's career.

Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle welcomed the result, saying, "This signals to our European partners that you can rely on Germany."

The measure boosts the lending capacity of the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF, to 440 billion euros (about $600 billion). It also increases the fund's authority to buy government bonds of troubled eurozone countries and lend money to governments before they get into deeper financial trouble, among other things.

But most economists are already saying that a far bigger fund — perhaps as large as $2 trillion or $3 trillion — and even stronger powers are needed to prevent debt turmoil from spreading across Europe and hammering the banking sector.

Six more parliaments in the eurozone still need to approve the bailout changes, including Slovakia, which is not schedule to vote on it until late October.

German officials said Thursday's vote sends a strong message that Europe is taking decisive action to stabilize and preserve the eurozone. But analysts believe Europe will have to leverage the fund's power by partnering more with the European Central Bank or taking other steps. Peter Altmaier, chief whip of Merkel's ruling center-right Christian Democratic Union, said that's not currently on the table.

"All other further decisions will be taken on a step-by-step basis," he said. "And it would be more than premature to table decisions like this leverage issue that we cannot judge appropriate for the time being. We will tackle the next problems as they come, but not now."

Issues Of Trust

Before the vote, the leader of the Free Democrats, part of Merkel's governing coalition, appealed to fellow parliamentarians to vote not along party lines, but with a unified Europe in mind. Economics Minister Phillip Rosler also stressed that only a "stable, unified Europe" can win back people's trust in politics.

But former Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck of the opposition Social Democrats blasted Merkel, saying her coalition has failed.

"Politics are no longer negotiating; they are being driven by the rating agencies — thumbs up and thumbs down," he said. "You and your government, Chancellor Merkel, lack the most important political quality in these times of danger: trust."

Lawmakers from all parties were united in calling for greater parliamentary participation in regard to the EFSF. Earlier this month, Germany's high court ruled that future government decisions on the fund will have to be cleared at least by a parliamentary committee before a full vote is taken.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble told Deutschlandfunk radio Thursday that the EFSF must be used as efficiently as possible, emphasizing that "the level of liability cannot be changed without a new Bundestag decision." Asked whether it is conceivable that parliament will one day soon discuss credit-leveraging, he said, "No one knows what the future will bring, but it is not conceivable that any decisions are taken by anyone but the German parliament."

Germany's upper house of parliament is widely expected to endorse the expansion plan Friday.

Financial Community Seeking Strong Action

The financial world has strongly criticized Merkel and fellow European leaders for what's been described as cautious, reactive leadership during this crisis.

Senior officials in the U.S., Japan and elsewhere are urging Germany and France to move more decisively. The Americans and others are urging Europe to create a safety net big enough to prevent Greece's debt woes from sparking a new global downturn.

Harvard economics professor and author Ken Rogoff says the risks are real and that a renewed sense of urgency is certainly needed.

"The risks now are approaching what we had in 2008, and particularly in Europe, urgent action is needed," he said. "They seem to be just waiting for things to unfold, for a disorderly default to unfold and a cascade of bank panics. I'm afraid this is a very nervous moment. And that needs to be communicated. Not just to leaders but to the public — especially in Germany."

Some Germans Have Mixed Feelings

Germans remain strongly supportive of European integration. But they worry that the end game involves the German taxpayer footing the bill for its fiscally imprudent neighbors.

"I'm really of two minds," said Martin Wortmann, a 68-year-old retiree from northwest Germany who was strolling with his wife near the historic Reichstag on a sun-filled Berlin afternoon. "That it has come this far is dreadful. We should have dealt with this much sooner. The situation is now so out of hand that we're being held ransom by the markets and are forced to do something. On the other hand, Germany is partly to blame with its excessive trade imbalance, and that is the heart of the problem, the imbalance within this monetary union among individual countries."

The libertarian, pro-business Free Democrats have seen their popularity plummet to historic lows, in part because of stances taken during the debt crisis that many voters have seen as anti-Europe.

Some party members have called for Greece to default and leave the eurozone. Frank Schaeffler said he and other FDP "rebels" are realists, while Merkel "is a euro romantic."

"Greece has no chance of getting out of this crisis if it stays within the eurozone," he said. "The markets know this — the news is all over town. It would be in the interest of everyone — both Greece and the rest of Europe — if Greece were to temporarily leave the eurozone, reintroduce the drachma, devaluate it. And then we can talk about how to support their banking system so as not to create a domino effect."

Bullfighting In Spain Stays Alive Despite Regional Ban

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:23:00 -0500

Spain's northeast region of Catalonia held its final bullfight last weekend, after voting last year to ban the practice.

But it's a different story elsewhere in Spain. While relatively few Spaniards are real aficionados of bullfighting, many more see it as a national tradition and don't want it banned.

On a recent day, Antonio Gutierrez and his friends puff on cigars and shuffle dominoes on a folding table near Madrid's famed Las Ventas bullring. They're a bit suspicious of a foreigner asking about bullfights.

"Bullfighting is very, very good. OK?" says Gutierrez.

Regional Conflict

They start cursing what they call "uppity Catalans," accusing Barcelona — the capital of Catalonia — of turning the world against bullfighting.

"Bullfighting is the history of Spain. It's the tradition in Spain. Barcelona is anti-bullfight, because it's anti-Spain," Gutierrez explains.

In other words, he thinks Catalonia's ban on bullfighting is mostly about politics and nationalism. The Catalan language and culture were repressed during the nearly 40-year military dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Since democracy, Catalan nationalists have sought to cast off all things Castilian — referring to Spain's central, and more conservative, heartland.

But bullfighting is alive and well in Madrid. Ionela Olteanu gives tours at the Las Ventas ring.

"For us, it's an art. It's combination of an artistic part and a technical part. And it's very important, this tradition," Olteanu says.

Bullfighting on foot began as a peasant game and morphed into something regal — a source of national pride, says Ricardo Perez, cuddling with his girlfriend on a bench near the bullring. It's what he was raised with — even if it is a bit bloody, he says. He respects it and thinks it should not be banned.

"I don't like that people kill bulls, but I respect it. I think it should be legal," Perez says.

Economic Challenges

It's true that attendance at bullfights is down nationwide — from 2,622 in 2007 to 1,724 in 2010, a drop of about one-third. Alexander Fiske-Harrison is a British aficionado who writes about bullfighting. Speaking from his home in London, he blames Spain's economic crisis for bullfighting's decline.

"Bullfighting has fallen off as the economy has collapsed, because it's an expensive hobby. People can't afford the tickets, and people can't afford the bulls," he says.

The bad economy even affects the quality of bulls that breeders bring to the ring.

Paco Mateo is a black-clad, chain-smoking writer. With his dark beard, he seems to be channeling another famous bullfighting writer, Ernest Hemingway, as he sits brooding at a cafe near the Plaza de Toros.

"In the world of bullfighting, there's much corruption, he says. The people killing the bulls aren't the fighters, it's those who are trying to save money because of the crisis, he says, adding that the companies are rotting the game.

When the bulls are weak or listless, and the matador has to goad them into fighting — that, he says, is when the sport looks most cruel.

A Complex Love-Hate Relationship

Many younger Spaniards, like Elisabeth Barcelo, don't see any romance in bullfighting.

"Bulls are not aware of what they do, but people are. So I don't like it. It's torturing an animal. It doesn't make any sense to me," she says.

Barcelo leans up against a bus stop plastered with an Armani ad. The hunky model on the poster is a famous bullfighter. And that's the paradox of bullfighting in modern Spain: The younger generation calls it murder, but still sees matadors as style icons.

The British aficionado, Fiske-Harrison, trained as a bullfighter himself.

"I think there will be an ongoing conflict between the animal rights and animal welfare lobby on the one side, and the pro-bullfighting lobby on the other. It's very hard to see it actually dying out completely, though."

Meanwhile, Madrid's bullring hosts half a dozen fights this weekend. Out of 24,000 seats, 20,000 tickets have already been sold.

More Trouble In Greece Ahead Of Debt Inspections

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 11:38:00 -0500

Greece's capital city was gridlocked Wednesday as mass-transit workers walked off the job for the third day this week over fresh austerity measures imposed by the government in hopes of securing crucial bailout funds.

The 24-hour strike left Athens without buses, subway trains, taxis or trams. Workers in customs and tax offices also walked off the job, and scores of retirees picketed outside the Finance Ministry to protest pension cuts.

Late Tuesday night, police fired tear gas to break up demonstrations outside the Greek Parliament building after lawmakers passed a new tax on real estate.

The Return Of The 'Troika'

The latest wave of protests, which are expected to continue well into the fall, comes as international inspectors are due back in Athens for talks on Greece's plan to rein in its budget deficit. If the country is viewed as complying with targets set down in a $150 billion bailout deal last year, it will receive an $11 billion installment of funds needed to pay bills and salaries in October.

Inspectors from the so-called troika — the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — suspended their review of the country's finances early this month amid talk of budget shortfalls. As a condition for their return to the capital, the Greek government promised written assurances that it will carry out the austerity plan — a sign, commentators say, of how little international trust Greece has.

European Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said the decision to go back to Athens "follows recent announcements by the Greek authorities concerning fiscal consolidation measures that constitute an important" development.

Once the fact-finding mission has made its conclusions, the finance ministers of the eurozone will organize a special meeting in October to assess them.

Merkel Says Not So Fast On New Bailout

Greece was saved from default last year by the international bailout deal, and European officials are working on approving a second bailout package.

Germany, Europe's most powerful economy, is expected to vote on the measure Thursday.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted that the second deal may have to be renegotiated amid increasing market speculation Wednesday that European leaders want to force private holders of Greek bonds to take bigger losses.

She didn't rule out altering the terms to the $148 billion package that EU leaders agreed to in July, saying the decision must be based on how the inspectors judge Athens' recent austerity efforts.

The planned second rescue package includes a voluntary participation by private bondholders, who agreed to write off about 20 percent on their Greek debt holdings.

But many economists and analysts maintain that Greece — mired in a deep recession worsened by the same austerity measures implemented in return for bailout loans — must have its total debt reduced by as much as 50 percent if it is to have a chance of recovering.

With reporting from Joanna Kakissis and NPR's Sylvia Poggioli in Athens. Material from The Associated Press was used in this story.