Martes, 13 de agosto de 2024

La Cataluña híbrida de Salvador Illa

EspañaModelo de EstadoModelo Territorial

Nada más tentador que caer en el pesimismo, lo que, en el caso de Cataluña, pasa por afirmar que el procés sigue su curso o que incluso está alcanzando sus objetivos. Mi admirado amigo Rafael Arenas así lo sostenía en una sólida tribuna donde afirmaba que el acuerdo entre PSC y ERC revitaliza el procés, ya que facilita los medios (tribunales y hacienda) para un posible nuevo intento secesionista, y que, si bien en dicho documento no se habla de independencia, lo esencial es que el PSC se ha convertido en "un partido nacionalista más". Coincido con Arenas en el hecho de que "el acuerdo de investidura que ha llevado a Illa a la plaza de Sant Jaume es, a todos los efectos prácticos, el programa del nacionalismo catalán".…  Seguir leyendo »

Europa

De repente, en todo el mundo, da la impresión de que las fuerzas progresistas están unidas y en pleno resurgimiento. El mes pasado, los centristas y socialistas franceses se pusieron de acuerdo para combatir la amenaza de Marine Le Pen. En Estados Unidos, los radicales y los moderados se agrupan en torno a Kamala Harris para derrotar a Donald Trump en noviembre. Y en el Reino Unido, la victoria electoral de Keir Starmer dio al Partido Laborista 411 escaños, frente a los 121 de los conservadores. Parecía un triunfo de la izquierda británica.

Pero no lo fue. Fue el triunfo de una parte concreta de la izquierda británica, para el que tuvo que derrotar a la otra parte.…  Seguir leyendo »

Los Juegos de París: el deporte como cuestión de Estado

EuropaUnión Europea,

“Francia no comprende el verdadero espíritu olímpico”. Estas palabras no pertenecen a ningún comentarista deportivo desplazado a París para retransmitir la competición más importante del deporte mundial. Es una afirmación del mismísimo Pierre de Coubertin, visionario fundador de los Juegos Olímpicos modernos, aunque no fue, precisamente, profeta en su tierra. Mientras él acusaba a su país de una profunda incomprensión de los valores olímpicos —la excelencia, la aspiración internacionalista y el pacifismo—, su figura y legado quedaron inevitablemente empañados por su respaldo a los Juegos de Berlín en 1936, un evento que Hitler utilizó para legitimar su régimen ante la opinión pública alemana e internacional con el único boicot de la República de España.…  Seguir leyendo »

Cicerón y el bufón de las Cortes

EspañaSocial

Existe ya en nuestro país una generación de votantes que no ha conocido un estilo serio de hacer política. No se trata de una seriedad caricaturizada como la que ingeniosamente representó Oscar Wilde en 'La importancia de llamarse Ernesto', donde la trivialidad en el carácter se entremezcla con las vitales preocupaciones de la clase alta victoriana. Precisamente, porque nada de lo que sucede en la arena pública habría de ser considerado banal, el sentido del deber de nuestros representantes no puede traducirse en nada que no sea solemnidad en las Cortes Generales. Así, aquello que la política española ha perdido, sin ninguna intención aparente de rescate, está vinculado con nuestra herencia romana: la 'gravitas'.…  Seguir leyendo »

Soldados ucranianos en la región de Donetsk, en Ucrania. Reuters

Europa, , ,

A finales de julio, el presidente ucraniano Volodímir Zelenski insinuó en una entrevista con periodistas franceses que Kiev estaba dispuesta a negociar con Moscú. Entre otras cosas, Zelenski dijo: "No tenemos que reconquistar todos los territorios [por medios militares]. Creo que [la reintegración de los territorios] también puede lograrse con la ayuda de la diplomacia".

Esta declaración, demostrativa de la voluntad ucraniana de negociar con Rusia, es un intento de afirmar la imagen de Kiev tanto ante la población ucraniana como ante sus socios extranjeros.

El anuncio de Zelenski corteja, entre otros, a los países occidentales. Porque no sólo desde el Sur Global, sino también desde Europa Occidental, se ha criticado, sin duda injustificadamente, la aparente reticencia ucraniana a aceptar un final negociado de la guerra.…  Seguir leyendo »

EspañaModelo de EstadoMonarquía

claro, para que nadie pueda pensar que me ha picado una avispa republicana, que me considero monárquico, partidario de un sistema que demuestra su eficacia en naciones europeas desarrolladas. Puede ser tradición aparte de convicción. Mi familia en Flandes se mantuvo fiel a la Monarquía española y a la fe católica. Ausentes los españoles, al sentirse inseguros por sus ideas y su fe, los dos hermanos mayores se trasladaron a España, a Cádiz, y la primera generación nacida en España ingresó ya en la Armada.

No somos pocos los españoles que en este momento difícil miramos como referencia al Rey Felipe VI, temerosos, desde cada vez más evidencias, de que se nos esté llevando a una nueva situación republicana tras las fallidas experiencias anteriores.…  Seguir leyendo »

Derechos históricos vascos en clave europea y de futuro

EspañaModelo de EstadoModelo Territorial

El debate abierto sobre el cumplimiento y la reforma estatutaria vasca vuelve a poner de manifiesto la necesidad de defensa y actualización de nuestro autogobierno. Supone, igualmente, un buen punto de referencia para reflexionar sobre el tránsito del concepto histórico de fueros al de derechos históricos de Euskal Herria. Incluso como elemento jurídico de abierta legitimación democrática hacia mayores cotas de soberanía mirando hacia el futuro y en clave europea.

En este contexto, una referencia al potencial de la disposición adicional 1ª de la Constitución de 1978 junto a las disposiciones adicionales del Estatuto de Gernika de 1979 y del Estatuto navarro de 1982 resulta vital.…  Seguir leyendo »

A poster of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at right, and slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is seen in Tehran on Saturday. (Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images)

MundoOriente Próximo

With Israel and Iran on the edge of a devastating regional war that neither country seems to want, the United States is playing a risky game of brinkmanship — massing a military force to defend Israel and, if it fails, perhaps join in an attack on Iran.

For Biden administration officials who have tried for months to de-escalate the conflict in Gaza, it’s a scary moment. “Multiple red indicator lights are now flashing”, writes Norman Roule, a former top CIA expert on Iran. “I’ve never seen the region so fragile and on the cusp of so many conflicts”.

Wars often result from a fundamental conflict of national interests.…  Seguir leyendo »

The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan travels through the Red Sea in August 2023. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Riley Gasdia/U.S. Navy/AP) (Mass Communications Specialist 3rd Class Riley Gasdia/AP)

MundoAmérica,

Since the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, China has grown in economic and military might. It now has the world’s largest navy and the world’s largest shipbuilding industry and is flexing its muscle. All that has been clear in the way it has harassed and bullied its Indo-Pacific neighbors, from the Philippines to Japan to Taiwan.

Meanwhile, over the same period, chronic maintenance and repair delays, cost overruns, extended sea tours, and construction backlogs have led to an atrophied American fleet and a broken naval industrial base.

There is a smart way out of this mess that will strengthen our defenses and alliances, but it will require Congress and the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and his wife, Gwen Walz, greeting supporters at Temple University, Philadelphia, August 6, 2024. Walz is making the gesture Johnny Carson made as Carnac the Magnificent, acknowledging applause. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

MundoAmérica,

Governor Tim Walz, as everybody knows by now, comes from Minnesota by way of Nebraska. He grew up near the eastern Nebraska town of West Point, which is about forty miles from the small city of Norfolk, the childhood home of Johnny Carson, the quintessential late-night talk show host. Carson’s “The Tonight Show” (later “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”), which appeared on NBC in the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, impressed his Midwestern persona into the nation’s consciousness. Governor Walz, in his first speech as Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential nominee, displayed a sense of comic timing and a flat Nebraska accent remarkably like Carson’s.…  Seguir leyendo »

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China, May 2024. Sergei Bobylev / Sputnik / Reuters

MundoAsiaEuropa, , , ,

In the weeks following Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the Chinese government struck a tone of cautious support for Moscow. Spokespeople for the Chinese government repeatedly stressed that Russia had the right to conduct its affairs as it saw fit, alleged that the word “invasion” was a Western interpretation of events, and suggested that the United States had provoked Russian President Vladimir Putin by backing a NATO expansion. China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, expressed sympathy for Russia’s “legitimate concerns”.

Yet outside of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, the reaction was more concerned. Although the vast majority of universities and think tanks in China are state funded, the analysts and academics who work there still retain a degree of independence, and their views exert a measure of influence on the government.…  Seguir leyendo »

Advertising boards for coaching services for students, Prayagraj, India, June 2024. Sahiba Chawdhary / Reuters

MundoAsia

On the morning of June 4, many Indians were glued to their television screens awaiting the results of the 2024 general elections. But far away from that public glare, 2.4 million aspiring doctors who had sat for an intensely competitive government-administered exam were also impatiently refreshing their screens, anticipating the results that would shape their futures. By the end of the day, both the elections and the medical school entrance exams raised enormous uncertainties. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party but were humbled after they failed to win a majority in Parliament and could form a government only with the help of coalition partners.…  Seguir leyendo »

Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who was recommended by Bangladeshi student leaders as the head of the interim government, speaks during a press briefing as he arrives at the Hazarat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on Aug. 8.

MundoAsia

The remarkable downfall of Bangladesh’s leader Sheikh Hasina was shocking in its speed, but the prime minister’s hasty escape to India as angry protesters converged on her Dhaka residence on Aug. 5 was not a total surprise. The signs of deep rot have been clear for several years. Bangladesh’s “economic miracle”, which lifted so many out of extreme poverty, was beginning to sour. There was also growing frustration at Hasina’s manipulation of national elections, curtailing of personal freedoms and undermining of institutions.

Economics and politics were inextricably linked in the slide of Bangladesh: corruption and mismanagement burdening the economy were essential for sustaining the patronage networks that kept an increasingly unpopular autocrat in power.…  Seguir leyendo »

How to Make a Nation of Meat Eaters Crave the Humble Bean

ReflexionesSocial  

This essay is part of What to Eat on a Burning Planet, a series exploring bold ideas to secure our food supply. Read more about this project in a note from Eliza Barclay, Opinion’s climate editor.

No politician wants to be the one to break the news that sooner than later, for the health of the planet, most of us are going to have to learn to eat a whole lot less meat — several times less red meat than what the average American consumes. This won’t be fixed by a few meatless Mondays.

We have a deep fatalism about our diets, and the conventional wisdom says that the only way to persuade the carnivorous to eat less meat is to offer them a faux alternative, such as lab-grown meat or a vegan substitute like Beyond Meat.…  Seguir leyendo »

What’s Happening in Britain Is Shocking. But It’s Not Surprising.

Europa,

The scenes are shocking.

In the wake of the murder of three young girls in the northwestern town of Southport, England, riots erupted across the country. Seizing on misinformation about the suspect’s identity, far-right rioters embarked on a harrowing rampage, setting fire to cars, burning down mosques, harassing Muslims, looting stores and attacking hotels housing asylum seekers. In an early August weekend, there were over 50 protests and almost 400 arrests. In the week since, hundreds of rioters have been charged and dozens convicted.

The country is stunned. But for all the events’ eye-popping madness, we shouldn’t be surprised. The animosities underpinning the riots — hatred of Muslims and migrants alike — have long found expression in Britain’s political culture, not least under the previous Conservative government whose cornerstone commitment was to “stop the boats” on which migrants made their way to British shores.…  Seguir leyendo »

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni arrive for a family picture during the European Council Summit at the EU headquarters in Brussels on June 27, 2024. JOHN THYS / AFP

EuropaUnión EuropeaDefensa y Seguridad

Fifteen years ago, when Europe went through a financial crisis, an economic depression, and a euro crisis, most political fights between European countries were about money. As a result, a deep divide emerged between northern and southern countries on debt and government deficits. At some point, the disputes got so fierce that some northerners proposed breaking the euro in two: a “neuro” for the north and a “zeuro” for the south.

In 2015, when hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees came to Europe, the money issue subsided, and European countries began having disputes about asylum and migration instead. This time, the divide many speculated about was not between the north and the south but between Europe’s east and west.…  Seguir leyendo »