42

No, it's not about Douglas Adams and the answer to life, the universe and everything, although for some it may seem like it. 42 is the number of votes, out of a grand total of 233.000, that seperated Ms Martie Aubry, the new leader of the French Socialist Party (PS) and the 2007 PS candidate for the French precidecy, Ms Ségolène Royal. With a leadership battle won with 50,02 to 49,98 precent, Ms Aubry, daughter of former European Commission President Jaques Delores, will find it hard to lead an equally divided party allready struggeling in its opposition to President Sarkozy and his UMP commanding a comfortable majority in the National Assembly.

From an outsider perspective I'm a bit ambivilent towards the PS' new president. While Ms Royal was accused for leading the party to the right during her presidential candidacy Ms Aubry is said to have the right ideology and a guarantee towards any centrist tendencies. Being neither French nor socialist but with an affection for France and with respect and recognition for France's importance, both i Europe and on the world stage, I'm not certain as to how to react. On the one hand the political operator in me, supporting UMP, in the lack of a better choice, sees a leader stearing PS to the left as even more centrist voters for Mr Sarkozy in 2012. On the other hand, it is not good for a country if the same people govern for too long (just look at France...) and so an alternation between UMP and a 21st century, social-democratic PS would be desirable. In this respect I'd prefer if they had chosen a different leader. Nevertheless, Ms Royal is not the moderate moderniser the PS needs. Thanks to President Sarkozy he left French politics in favour of New York and the IMF, namely Mr Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The Lisbon Treaty moves on

Yesterday evening the Swedish parliament, Riksdagen, ratified the Lisbon Treaty, with the centre-right government coalition parties together with the Social Democrats voting in favour. It is not that long since the Irish population voted no in a referendum, but still the Swedish government decided not to put the process to a halt. I'm glad to see that responsible and euro-friendly governments haven't given up and hopefully we'll see a second, this time successfull, referendum in Ireland soon, so the Treaty may be implemented by January 1st 2010.

A story from everyday life

One of the things I like best about Bruges (together with Bruge Zot) is the pathway around the inner city, perfectly made for late night walks. In fact, I would go as far as to say that the hour-and-a-half I spend doing the tour of the town three to four times a week helps keep me sane. On these late night walk I've been accompagnied by my beloved iPod Shuffle. 1Gb, 250 songs and little to no intervention on the order of the songs. A gift from my sister and one I cherish very high. However, as I was about two thirds of the round the other day, while changing the volume, I discovered to my surprise and dispear that the protectiv silicon cover had fallen off. Let it be noted that these covers cost little to nothing but it's still enoying. Knowing that to walk back, in the dark, hoping to recover the cover would be useless I decided to contitue, angry with myself. As I for the n-te time walked the round today I thought it couldn't harm to keep an eye out for the cover, being perfectly aware that the chances of finding it would be next to nothing. As an observent reader you've probably deduced the continuation, but I will nevertheless procede with the end. Half the way through the round I'm at the crossing next to the train station. While standing there, waiting for the light to turn green it comes to be that two days ago, as I was standing at the precise same spot I skipped a track, and it was thus possible that this was the place the cover fell off. I look down, and there, halfway covered in dust, I see it, the cover. On a day that otherwise looked to be a gray one, with a cold holding a tight grip on my body, exams approaching and otherwise just too much on my mind, this was exactly the sort of tiny, insignificant thing that lifed my spirit just that small bit over the edge.

- The EU was not responsible for the post-war peace and prosperity in Western Europe

A century ago Alfred Nobel, when establishing a set of prices in his name, decided that the Peace Price should be decided by a Norwegian committee whose member where elected by the Norwegian parliament. Hundred-and-some years later Mr Torbjorn Jagland, amongst other things former Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and currently Labour MP and President of the Parliament, is set to be the next leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. As Mr Jagland is a staunch supporter for Norwegian membership to the EU and has publicly stated that the EU, because of its role in preserving and consolidating peace in Europe after World War 2, deserves the Peace Price sparks have begun to fly within the Socialis Left Party (SV) and the No to EU-movement. Mr Heming Olaussen, leader of No to EU and former member of the Central Committee of SV, demands that anti-EU hard-liners are appointed from his party, as he fears that Mr Jagland, together with the majority of the committee, who are also pro-Europeans, will push through the price being given to the Beast from Brussels. He argues that crediting the EU for post-war peace in Western Europe has no more value than crediting NATO and that arguing that the peace between Germany and France was secured by the EU is to argue that two NATO-members would have attacked each other without the EU, which he sees as unthinkable. Mr Olaussen, together with large parts of the Norwegian far-left-wing intelligensia sees the EU as the Beast in Revelations, and giving credits this beast for anything is thus unthinkable. However, at times, even if they see the EU as the Beast and market liberation as the work of the Devil, it would be nice if they'd recognize the role the integration of the French and German coal- and steel industries played in the years of reconstruction. Is it unthinkable for two NATO-powers to go to war with one-another? Seeing first of all the centuries of conflicts and wars between France and Germany/the German states and secondly the everlasting conflicts between Turkey and Greece, beliving that NATO-membership is enough to make arch-enemies friendly towards each-other is overly optimistic. No, I'm afraid Mr Olaussen knows perfectly well the importance of European economic integration to the peace and prosperity in Western Europe, but that he takes every oppertunity he has to talk down on the European project.

How to buy yourself a government

That the connection between the labour movement and social democratic parties were strong in the past has always been known. That the labour unions poured money into these parties was a part of the game, in the same way as the confederations of entreprises funded the conservative parties. However, placing conditionalities on these fondings were never an issue, as these parties were seen as promoting the interests of their financial contriubtors even if they differed on some issues. In Norway this was the case until the 1990s when NHO, the Norwegian Commerce Organisation, decided to no longer be a partisan actor and stopped sending cheques to the Conservative Party. Soon after followed LO, the main labour union, who ended its century-old partnership with Labour. This however, seems like nothing but a short intermission today.

In 2004, well before the 2005 general elections, Gerd-Liv Valla, then head of LO, pumped vast sums of mony into the Labour election machine and initiated "The Long Campaign" desitned to (succesfully) replace the then centre-right governing coalition with today's so-called red-green centre-left government. As a "thank you" for the support Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg made labour union membership tax deductable. It is now under a year left to the next general elections, due to take place in September 2009, an the debate over financial support has once again been revitalised. As I've mentionned in an earlier post Ms Liv Signe Navarsete, cabinet minister and leader of the Centre Party, as threatened to oppose the implementation of the Services Directive in Norway. She has now a mighty ally. Leading figures in LO agitate that unless PM Jens Stoltenberg (who is a staunch pro-European and who's spine reflex is economic liberal) and his Labour, who holds 10 out of 19 ministerial posts, vetos the directive they can forget funding for next year.

Allow me to repeate and rephrase that last part: LO, the main financial contributor to Labour, threatens to withdraw its support unless the Government does a certain thing. Or in other words, if Labour do oppose the directive, they will then gain the financial and moral backing of LO. In my eyes this looks very much like buying and selling of votes, or corruption as some might call it.