EU: Green MEP urges Turkey's Kurds to give up violence
http://www.eubusiness.com/East_Europe/060506171651.su5ow13u EU: Fischer rules out possibility of 'train crash' in Turkish-EU talks
http://www.thenewanatolian.com/tna-6225.html EU: European Agency for Fundamental Rights: EU Parliament to play bigger role in new Agency
http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/default/dok/123/123346.european_agency_for_fundamental_rights@en.htm EU: Nuclear Waste: EP supports sending EU nuclear waste to other countries' backyards
http://www.greens-efa.org/cms/default/dok/123/123505.nuclear_waste@en.htm ****************************************************************
New Zealand: John Armstrong's Op-Ed: All sizzle and little sausage
[see the full article below]
Plenty of sausage, not enough sizzle. Mike Ward's analysis of what is wrong with the Greens will not alter his status as the rank outsider in the four-way tussle to fill Rod Donald's shoes as the party's male co-leader. However, Ward's sausage analogy illustrates how the leadership election - now formally under way - has inevitably turned into something of a stocktake of the party's progress after nearly a decade in Parliament
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UK: Greens delight in poll gains
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localelections2006/story/0,,1768550,00.html http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2540 http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2541 UK: Norwich goes Green
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED05%20May%202006%2013%3A15%3A31%3A167 UK: What drives Green group leader?
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED06%20May%202006%2015%3A19%3A16%3A690 **************************************************************
UK: Greens in the pink in Lewisham
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-1391.html UK: Greens make gains as environment moves up agenda
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article362355.ece UK: Extremism at the centre
The success of the Greens and the BNP in the local elections offers a hint of changes from which there will soon be nowhere to hide.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jeremy_seabrook/2006/05/the_extreme_as_centre.html UK: Greens hail breakthrough election gains
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2166837,00.html Scotland: Greens ready to support SNP government
http://www.sundayherald.com/55552 **************************************************************
Canada: Post-budget poll shows slip in support for Tories
Greens are up 2% to 9%
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060505/conservative_poll_060505/20060506?hub=Canada German MPs: Iran Remains Resistant to Western Diplomacy
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1994027,00.html ...Green party parliamentarian Marie-Luise Beck, who accompanied Polenz to Iran, was shocked about the level of anti-Americanism and said it was all the more important for the US administration to seek direct dialogue with Iranian leaders on a settlement of the conflict. Coming back from Tehran, she said she'd realized that the task ahead of the Security Council was a daunting one. "I had not realized how fixed this impression is that the US is against this country," she said. And if they give you this feeling, even if they're wrong in a rational sense, you have to take that feeling seriously."
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EU: Fischer says development of Turkey's Southest crucial for EU accession
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=42330 Germany's former foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said one key factor that would help determine the future of Turkey's European Union membership bid would be the rate of development of the nation's southeastern and eastern areas, which he qualified as different from Europe. "Turkey is a split picture," Fischer told a panel on the EU's future at the Brookings Institution, a Democratic-leaning think tank in Washington. He said Turkey's western and southwestern regions were already European but that the picture was different in the underdeveloped Southeast and East. Turkey's Southeast is also scene to the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) ongoing terrorist attacks. Fischer, foreign minister between 1998 and 2005 in a Social Democratic-Greens coalition in Germany, said the Southeast and East's development would play a key role on a future decision on Turkey's EU accession. "There's a need for time," he said. A staunch supporter of Turkey's EU accession, Fischer said a recent radicalization in the Middle East proved that last October's move by the EU to open membership talks with Ankara was the right decision. "Where would we be standing now if we had closed the door to Turkey in October? It would be messy, given the recent Islamic radicalization in the Middle East," he said, referring to an ongoing international crisis over Iran's nuclear program, the war in Iraq and Palestine's legislative elections won by the radical Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, in January. Fischer said he was not pessimistic on Turkey's overall chances to eventually enter the EU, adding that even Germany's now-ruling Christian Democrats agreed that Turkey's modernization was of crucial importance. However, given Turkey's size, an eventual decision will be a serious one for both sides, Fischer said. Fischer accused top French and Dutch officials of lacking leadership for failed referendums for an EU charter in the two key nations last year, saying that in the first place "there was no need to go to referendums." The EU constitution's rejection in France and the Netherlands has put the EU's plans for restructuring and future enlargement into disarray.
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New Zealand: John Armstrong's Op-Ed: All sizzle and little sausage
[From the NZ Herald; for subscribers-only]
Plenty of sausage, not enough sizzle. Mike Ward's analysis of what is wrong with the Greens will not alter his status as the rank outsider in the four-way tussle to fill Rod Donald's shoes as the party's male co-leader. However, Ward's sausage analogy illustrates how the leadership election - now formally under way - has inevitably turned into something of a stocktake of the party's progress after nearly a decade in Parliament. The Greens' sausage - definitely organic, quite possibly soya-bean to boot - is not to everyone's taste. But the Greens have to believe there is a bigger market for it than they are capturing. In politics, you need the sizzle to sell the message. Ward says he is good at sizzle. But Ward may be all sizzle and little sausage. If the flamboyant one-term MP was not the best-dressed male MP in the last Parliament, he was certainly the most sartorially expressive, topping that by winning Wellington's wearable arts award. While in Parliament, he picked a seemingly unwinnable fight with the makers of disposable nappies. Nappies won. The Great Nappy Campaign was not a success. Ward spent much of the last election campaign riding around the North Island on a recumbent-type tricycle. He would be a very different co-leader. But not one that even the tolerant Greens could contemplate. Ward's candidacy speaks of the time when the Greens played at politics. That time is over.
The buzzword within the party is "realism". It is a coded way of saying electing Ward or Nandor Tanczos as co-leader would send the wrong message to voters and cut across the party's bottom-line priority of growing its vote. Tanczos, a far more serious prospect than Ward, has countered by seeking to reinvent himself as a more rounded politician than someone who has been seen as fixated with cannabis law reform. He is handicapped by lingering doubts about his commitment to being an MP, let alone co-leader. He has sought to answer that criticism by displaying huge energy and drive since returning to Parliament following Donald's death. He has also been quick to turn the co-leadership contest into a debate about the party's future direction. He had to.
The acknowledged front-runner, Russel Norman, has manoeuvred behind the scenes to postpone such a major debate until after the party's Queen's Birthday weekend conference where the co-leader will be chosen. Norman argued that party direction should be driven by grassroots members rather than becoming hostage to the personalities and campaigning strategies of those fighting over Donald's job.
The 100 or so delegates who will determine the co-leader under the STV voting system favoured by the party arguably have enough on their plate in determining who would work best alongside Jeanette Fitzsimons. But not only that. The decision must take into account the likelihood that the next parliamentary term will be Fitzsimons' last and a replacement will have to be found. Dual leadership - a nod to gender equality - could be a millstone around the party's neck. That was disguised by the chemistry between Fitzsimons and Donald - a chemistry which had Donald stepping back and allowing Fitzsimons to front as the face of the Greens when there was not room for both on a platform. The order of seniority would be most obviously preserved by electing a non-MP - Norman or the remaining candidate, Unitech lecturer Dave Clendon. Fitzsimons has already hinted that is her preference. She has complained the party membership has become too reliant on its MPs. Norman or Clendon - both having served in various backroom roles - could concentrate on rebuilding and reinvigorating the party organisation without the distraction of Parliament, while Fitzsimons could concentrate on parliamentary duties.
Squeezed out of the picture, Tanczos could hardly allow the election to be defined on terms favourable to Norman. The Rastafarian has made a play for those who believe the party should retain a strong environmentalist thrust which should not be overshadowed by the increasing emphasis on "social justice" - the philosophical background from which Norman springs. Tanczos has cleverly linked this argument to the other major question taxing members' minds - the party's relationship with Labour. Tanczos is saying the party should avoid being constantly marooned to the left of Labour, which leaves it in a position of weakness when bargaining with Labour. Worse, the Greens are vulnerable to the emergence of a true left-wing alternative to Labour or to Labour shifting leftwards - just as Act was steamrollered by National pushing to its right. Staking out a more independent position on the political spectrum would also attract voters sympathetic to Green messages but who feel the party is too far to the left.
Tanczos is seeking to redefine the contest in his terms by offering a strategy which deals with the party's overriding priority: how to stop flirting with parliamentary extinction by hovering too close to the 5 per cent threshold and instead register closer to 10 per cent support, which would enable the Greens to exert far more pressure on Labour. With the party's strongest support in the inner cities and enclaves around Nelson, the Coromandel and Waiheke Island - all home to alternative lifestylers - Norman has been talking of the Greens making the leap into the suburbs by picking up on mainstream issues such as higher petrol prices, lack of public transport and latent fears that global warming is escalating. That thinking is shared by Clendon. Both candidates would knock on the doors of business and sector groups to extend the party's reach and to stop people automatically attaching the "whacky" label to everything the Greens do.
They will not be stating it directly but the implication of them saying they can best communicate the Green message is that Tanczos is too typecast to open doors so far closed to the party. Their candidacies are all about the party making the next step up by looking much more professional and sounding much more focused. It is something the Australian Greens have successfully taken to heart. Image matters in politics. Tanczos' dreadlocks and Ward's dandyish suits simply get in the way of the message - as did Donald's braces. If the Greens want credibility in the suburbs, they are being told they have
to smarten up their act - literally. Otherwise, it is going to be fizzle rather than sizzle.
