By Gideon Rachman
“Weak.” “Apologist.” Those two words are repeated endlessly in the Republican party’s attack on Barack Obama, as it tries to persuade voters that the US president is not worthy of another term as commander-in-chief.
This advertisement for the Prague marathon – which I photographed in the airport, this weekend – strikes me as having an unfortunate slogan. I know that Czechs are not terribly happy with the their government. But a nation that is still worried about national sovereignty, after rule from Berlin and Moscow, might be a little more careful about how it words invitations to tourists.
The eurozone crisis is back in focus this week. In a Bloomberg poll published on Thursday, 57% of 1,253 investors, analysts and traders who are Bloomberg subscribers said at least one country will abandon the euro by year-end.
There was a scramble in Greece after two of its biggest parties collapsed in the general election, propelling the far left Syriza party into the spotlight. Spain, meanwhile, is set to miss its budget deficit target for this year and the next. The government also had to part-nationalise the troubled savings bank, Bankia.
We rounded up the best reads on Spain for you last week. Now we take a look at one of the other countries currently at the centre of the crisis – Greece – and give you the top reads from the FT and elsewhere.
Growth vs austerity in the eurozone
The growth vs austerity debate has been a focal point of eurozone politics over the past weeks. With voters in France and Greece appearing to reject austerity in this weekend’s elections, are we beginning to see a shift in policy from austerity towards spurring growth? Ralph Atkins, Hugh Carnegy, Chris Giles and Ben Hall join Shawn Donnan to discuss.
The defeat of Senator Richard Lugar in a Republican Party primary in Indiana is a further depressing sign of the death of centrism in the GOP. Lugar was a classic old-style, bipartisan Republican: solidly conservative in his outlook, but also willing to work across party lines on issues of national interest, such as arms control. He also has two other characteristics that are going out of fashion among Republicans: he has a deep knowledge of international affairs and he believes in international law. Neither characteristic turned out to be a plus, when running for the Republican nomination, against a Tea Party candidate.
On the other hand, one should be honest. Lugar is now in his eighties. His great period was in the 1980s and 1990s, when he played a key role in formulating US policy, as the cold war came to a climax – and then a close. As this piece by Jacob Heilbrunn makes clear, it was probably time for him to retire. But it’s a real shame that there are no new Lugars on the horizon.
The endless guessing game about whether Israel is planning to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months continues. Now we have two pieces of fresh evidence – but they seem to point in opposite directions. First, there is the outbreak of dissent amongst top Israeli securocrats – several of whom have gone on the record, to say that an attack on Iran would be a v.bad idea. On the other hand, Netanyahu has just formed a government of national unity - which includes three former chiefs of the defence staff.
General Óscar Naranjo is known as the world’s “best policeman”, or at least that is what the Canadian mounties have called Colombia’s top cop. Gen Naranjo, profiled here by the FT, is also looking for a job.
The unassuming Jesuit-schooled 56-year old, who has shaped and led Colombia’s pretty successful two-decade-long fight against organised crime, said last month that he would step down in July as head of Colombia’s 160,000-strong police force. After leading the institution for five years it was time, he said, for somebody else to take charge.
By Gideon Rachman
In rural France on Sunday night, the newly-elected French president took to the stage and announced that he would lead the battle in Europe against austerity. On the other side of the continent, Greek voters were calling his bluff. By overwhelmingly opting for parties that want to either repudiate or renegotiate Greece’s bailout deal, they have handed François Hollande a painful dilemma. Will he stand with the Greek people against austerity? Or will he stand with the German government and the International Monetary Fund, in insisting that the Greek bailout cannot be renegotiated?
Welcome to our rolling coverage of the reaction to elections in France and Greece on a big day for Europe.
By Tom Burgis, John Aglionby and Esther Bintliff in London with contributions from FT correspondents around the world. All times are London time.
This post should update automatically every few minutes, although it might take longer on mobile devices.
16.52 That’s the lot of the live blog today. See FT.com for more news and analysis through the night.
We’ll leave you with a quick summary and some reading. Today:
Francois Hollande’s victory speech tonight was pretty well-judged. I thought it was shrewd to hit the reconciliation button early – and to persist with his tribute to Sarkozy, even against the background of catcalls. His voice was pleasantly hoarse, after the campaign. He didn’t bang on for too long – and his promise to dedicate himself to “justice et jeunesse” (justice and the young) was alliterative and inoffensive.
Clearly, he is keen to play up his down-to-earth qualities after the bling accusations flung at Sarko. I noticed Hollande travelled through the streets of Tulle in a regular grey Renault – it didn’t even look like a Renault Espace. I guess the French will like this normal bloke business for a while, and then may get fed up with it. The French president is meant to be a big monarchical, isn’t he?
Hollande also asserted that the “eyes of Europe are on France”. Actually, some eyes might be swivelling towards Athens – where the backlash against the mainstream parties in today’s Greek election has been even more extreme than anticipated. It looks as if it might be very difficult to maintain a Greek parliamentary majority in support of the bail-out and of austerity. In which case, the market reaction tomorrow might be fearful. And President Hollande could wake up with a nasty hangover – and an instant euro-crisis to deal with.
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