Germany: Interview with Ekin Deligöz, Green MP It is Okay to be Both Turkish and German ************************************************************* Czech Republic: ODS, KDU-CSL, Greens sign coalition agreement Czech Republic: Czech govt will not build new N-plants -Bursik Czech Rep: Austrian Temelin critics hail Czech govt accord, cancel blockade Czech Republic: Schwarzenberg says he was never Austrian, Klaus mistaken Czech Republic: Schwarzenberg would firm Czech-Austrian ties as minister- experts ************************************************************* UK: Greens criticise 'soggy' policies UK: Greens push through 5% barrier
A national poll placed the Green Party at 5%, pushing the party into direct competition with the LibDems, Tories and Labour ************************************************************* Australia: Nuclear energy solution too slow, say Greens Australia: Brethren schools should be investigated: Greens New Zealand: Cut down army size, says NZ's Green Party ************************************************************* USA/CA: State Green Party says 2006 was a very good year USA/CA: Mayor-elect shares stage with Nader at Green Party gathering Canada: Election year ahead? The upstart Green party lifted its national support close to 10 per cent, bleeding strength from everyone but particularly the NDP, which saw its 17.5 per cent of the national vote on Jan. 23 cut by as much as one third in several recent surveys. Not only New Democrats are getting squeezed. Elizabeth May, the Green party leader, heaped praise on Dion at a news conference to end the Commons session. She called the former Liberal cabinet minister "a very, very good environment minister" and said that while the Liberal record on fighting greenhouse gas emissions wasn’t great, they were "still light years ahead of Harper on the Kyoto file." Canada/BC: Greens roots growing As the year draws to an end, the B.C. Liberals continue to outpace their main rival, the New Democrats, according to a poll released Thursday. It is the Green party, however, that has been gaining significant ground since the last provincial election. According to an December Ipsos-Reid poll of 800 adult British Columbians, 16 per cent of decided voters would vote Green, whereas 45 and 36 per cent would vote Liberal or NDP respectively. ************************************************************** Czech press survey http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=228180Prague- President Vaclav Klaus's objections against Karel Schwarzenberg as the Green Party's candidate for foreign minister are unconvincing, Martin Zverina writes in the daily Lidove noviny today. In his latest newspaper article Klaus said that Schwarzenberg cannot defend the Czech Republic's interests appropriately as he spent a larger part of his life in Austria and has part of his property in Austria. As a result, Klaus believes, Schwarzenberg is bound by many commitments abroad. Is one's foreign property or involuntary emigration really a disqualifying circumstance? Are those whom the Communists expelled from Czechoslovakia bad, second-rate Czechs? Zverina asks. Also funny is Klaus's objection that Schwarzenberg has had only a marginal contact with ordinary people's life. As for Klaus, he has not seen such life for many years, except for carefully arranged meetings with citizens, but by no means has this disqualified him, Zverina writes. Klaus's objection that the Greens, who nominated Schwarzenberg for minister, are a marginal party, extreme in many points, is relevant but not for Klaus to come up with. It is up to the government coalition parties to consider it, Zverina writes. By lashing out at Schwarzenberg Klaus only plays against Mirek Topolanek within the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). Moreover, Schwarzenberg is not a member of the Green Party and he can hardly fulfil any of its "directives, " Zverina writes. ****************************************************** Czech press survey http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/index_view.php?id=228033Prague- Green Party (SZ) chairman Martin Bursik's recent proposal that direct presidential election be introduced in the Czech Republic seems to be his attempt to corrupt the current president, Vaclav Klaus, the daily Pravo writes today. Klaus enjoys enormous popularity and the direct election method would almost certainly secure his re-election in 2008 for another five years, Pavel Verner says in the paper. On the one hand, the SZ has always promoted direct presidential elections. On the other, Bursik has always made it clear that Klaus is not his party's favourite, Verner writes. Bursik made his proposal shortly after Klaus refused to appoint a centre-right government including the SZ as a junior ruling party. Bursik's initiative thus looks like a deal he has offered to Klaus. The government would secure Klaus's smooth re-election [in direct polls] if he quickly appointed it in the proposed lineup, including Karel Schwarzenberg as the SZ's candidate for foreign minister, Verner writes. Klaus may feel pleased by this "Christmas present" he has received from Bursik. A part of the Civic Democrats (ODS), the potential senior ruling party he used to chair for many years, dislikes him now and he need not be supported by all ODS MPs if president continued to be jointly chosen by the two houses of parliament. [...] Some in the ODS mind Karel Schwarzenberg as the Green Party's (SZ) candidate for foreign minister. The Europhobic faction in the ODS simply minds Schwarzenberg not being Eurosceptical enough. Others fear that Schwarzenberg, an experienced and competent personality, could shadow many ministers from the ODS, Machacek writes in Hospodarske noviny. Some influential ODS leaders are considering sinking the proposed government in parliament next month. A single vote would be enough for them to manage it. Afterwards, the time will come for the "government of national salvation" including ODS deputy head Pavel Bem, Tlusty, Social Democrat (CSSD) leader Jiri Paroubek and probably also KDU-CSL leader Jiri Cunek, under the auspices of President Vaclav Klaus, Machacek concludes sarcastically. The voters who supported the Greens (SZ) in the June general election will suffer most of all if the SZ were allowed to implement its goals as a lackey of the senior ruling Civic Democrats (ODS) in the new government, Jan Keller writes elsewhere in Pravo. The SZ was mainly supported by voters with slightly above-average incomes, young people and inhabitants of cities. The SZ's election slogan was "Quality of Life". What quality of life, however, would the party bring to its supporters as a partner in the ODS-led government? Keller asks. People with average and slightly above-average incomes would be most damaged by the ODS's promoted Blue Chance project including flat tax. Unlike the rich, they will not see any tax relief, but they would be stripped of numerous benefits and allowances, the granting of which the ODS wants to restrict, Keller writes. Young people, on their part, would face the introduction of tuition fees at universities, a measure that both the SZ and the ODS promote, he says. Residents of cities will be "presented" with a sharp and cost-intensive rent deregulation that would negatively affect their standard of living. On the other hand, the SZ cannot be expected to help city residents tackle the decline in the state of the environment, caused by swelling road transport, Keller writes. Most "presents" the SZ eagerly wants to "distribute" along with the ODS will address the highest-income groups of people, Keller points out.
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