European press review
French papers pay tribute to renowned
photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. The Spanish press comments on Gibraltar's
celebrations of 300 years of British rule. A Warsaw daily wishes Russia would
come to terms with a dark chapter in its history. In Germany, papers take a keen
interest in a trial involving sex, drugs, and a friend of the
chancellor.
Cartier-Bresson
France's Le Monde describes Henri
Cartier-Bresson, who has died at the age of 95, as "one of the 20th century's
great master photographers" and "a major witness to all the major world events"
of the last century.
For many people Cartier-Bresson was to photography what Michaelangelo was to sculpture or Rembrandt to painting
For many people Cartier-Bresson was to photography what Michaelangelo was to sculpture or Rembrandt to painting
La Tribune de Geneve
"This austere magician combined the rules of
geometry with an outstanding intuition which enabled him to capture the crucial
moment, in all places and all circumstances," it says.
Liberation devotes its entire front page to a
photo of Cartier-Bresson looking through the objective of his tiny hand-held
Leica in his younger days.
The paper points out that the photographer
decried his own art, describing it as "a mechanical trick".
It also quotes him as having once said: "I have
no imagination, I just look".
"But in capturing the world in his pictures", it
says, Cartier-Bresson "knew that he was continuing in his own century the
artist's endless quest to steal a spark of life from time and
space".
The Swiss La Tribune De Geneve sees
Cartier-Bresson's passing as heralding "the end of the world in
black-and-white".
"For many people," the paper says, "he was to
photography what Michaelangelo was to sculpture or Rembrandt to
painting".
'Provocation'
Madrid's El Pais criticises the way the UK
government marked the 300th anniversary of British sovereignty over Gibraltar on
Wednesday.
[Brussels] could, for example, force London to end Gibraltar's role as a tax haven and international smuggling centre which so contributes to the Gibraltarians' attachment to the status quo
[Brussels] could, for example, force London to end Gibraltar's role as a tax haven and international smuggling centre which so contributes to the Gibraltarians' attachment to the status quo
El Pais
It says that sending Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon
to the territory was London's "third unfriendly gesture in just a few months" -
the other two being visits by Princess Anne and by the nuclear submarine HMS
Tireless.
The dispute, "has moved from the seemingly
imminent prospect, two years ago, of an agreement on shared sovereignty", to
such "acts of gratuitous provocation".
The paper links this change with what it sees as
the British prime minister's own shifting political fortunes, from "the
triumphant Blair" of after the 2002 elections, to the current "enfeebled"
version preparing to go to the polls next year for the third time.
Brussels, it argues, "has trump cards it can play
to unblock the situation: It could, for example, force London to end Gibraltar's
role as a tax haven and international smuggling centre which so contributes to
the Gibraltarians' attachment to the status quo".
Slicing the cake
Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung expects incoming
EU Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso to face strong pressure from
member states over the sharing out of portfolios among the new
commissioners.
Barroso would make a total fool of himself were he nevertheless to choose the German as Europe's economy tsar
Barroso would make a total fool of himself were he nevertheless to choose the German as Europe's economy tsar
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
"Barroso will have to fear all EU governments as
enemies who regard their 24 supposedly European commissioners in reality as
champions of their own national interests."
It points out that Berlin wants a key economic
post for its commissioner even though, in the paper's opinion, he lacks economic
expertise.
"In the eyes of most EU partners," the paper
says, "Barroso would make a total fool of himself were he nevertheless to choose
the German as Europe's economy tsar."
Austria's Der Standard says the areas of
expertise of the 24 incoming commissioners do not match the available portfolios
very well.
The paper notes that eight of them are
experienced in foreign policy while there are no experts in the fields of
agriculture, home affairs or justice.
"The problem would be aggravated," it argues,
"were it to turn out that the economic portfolios... are to be put together and,
in line with Berlin's declared wish, given to a German."
"What would then be left for the others?" the
paper wonders.
Katyn
"Russia is incapable of stripping its own history
of lies," says a commentary in Warsaw's Gazeta Wyborcza, following a decision by
the Russian military prosecutor's office not to issue indictments at the end of
an investigation into the notorious 1940 massacre of some 23,000 Polish officers
in the town of Katyn.
The paper points out that, under the UN
Convention of 1948, such an act fits the definition of genocide, and it takes a
scathing view of Russia's claimed inability to accept the application of the
definition.
The real reason, it argues, is that acknowledging
this "would require" the Russians to admit that "from the Bolshevik Revolution
of 1917 until the end of Stalinism in 1953 they lived in a genocidal
dictatorship".
And such an admission, it adds, would require the
kind of investigation, retribution and restitution of which the new Russia is
incapable because it has "grown out of the decomposition of the Soviet Union,
not of a revolt against it".
Painting the town red
Several German papers comment on the 11-month
suspended prison sentence handed down for drugs possession to painter Joerg
Immendorff, a friend of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and one of his favourite
artists.
What was the supposed point of forcing a demonstrably terminally ill person into the dock in a public criminal trial?
What was the supposed point of forcing a demonstrably terminally ill person into the dock in a public criminal trial?
Die Tageszeitung
Immendorff was arrested at a luxury hotel in
Duesseldorf during a cocaine-fuelled orgy with nine prostitutes.
The Berliner Zeitung describes the sentence as
"sensible", saying the court took account of the fact that Immendorff is
suffering from a nerve disease which leads to paralysis and eventual
death.
Die Tageszeitung agrees that the sentence is
"acceptable" but adds that the trial itself was "a scandal".
"What was the supposed point of forcing a
demonstrably terminally ill person into the dock in a public criminal trial?"
the paper asks.
But Die Welt says the requirements of the law
"have been met by punishing the criminal possession of a substantial quantity of
cocaine, and the requirements of humanity have been served by not attacking the
existence of a terminally ill man."
The European press review is compiled by BBC
Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early
printed editions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/europe/3537380.stm
France's papers pay tribute to photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, while Spain's comment on Gibraltar's celebrations of 300 years of British rule and a Warsaw daily wishes Russia would acknowledge the 1940 Katyn massacre .
