On 25 May, Italians will take part in the elections to the European Parliament for the eighth time in their history. The first time was in 1979. In those elections, which are now historic, Democrazia Cristiana won 36.45% of the votes, followed by the Italian Partito Comunista, which managed to win 29.57% of the votes. Today, many other political actors will compete for the 73 seats that are allocated to Italy in the European Parliament. The same number of seats as the United Kingdom, while only France and Germany hold greater parliamentary representation, with 74 and 96 seats respectively.
On 14 April, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the European Union, gathered in Luxembourg, gave the green light to designate 2015 as the European Year for Development. Since 1957, the EU’s cooperation policy has been increasingly broadened until reaching more than 130 developing countries. Currently, the EU, together with its Member States, constitutes the largest giver of Official Aid—56,500 million euros in 2013, more than half of the world total—. The EU is also the leading humanitarian aid donor and, only in 2011, assisted more than 150 million people in 80 countries.
The Carnation Revolution put an end to one of the longest dictatorships in the recent European history, and one of the most deceptive dictatorships established in the old continent throughout the 1930s. It was deceptive because, under the guise of a benevolent dictatorship, a highly repressive regime was concealed, as shown by the dark history of its feared political police, the PIDE. It was deceptive because, under a semi-liberal political structure, a true personal dictatorship was developed, that of the Head of the Council of Ministers, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.
Friday, April 25th marks the 40th anniversary of the coup d’état that put an end to the Estado Novo and started a political change process that would lead to the current Portuguese democracy. The anniversary is surrounded, as it could not be otherwise when it comes to the country’s culture, by nostalgia and melancholy, the pitiful expression of a society that is not only going through a deep economic crisis but has also reached the mid-life crisis of its democracy.
The Balkans of 2014 are certainly not those of 1914. While Ukraine and Syria’s crises make us reflect on possible similarities between the current Europe and that of the outbreak of World War I, the Balkans are much more reminiscent of the wars in former Yugoslavia (1991-1999), which implied the country’s destruction and break-up and the subsequent appearance of seven new States. Of these, two are already members of the European Union (Slovenia and Croatia); two have signed the Association Agreement with the EU (Montenegro and Serbia), and three are stuck with their internal problems (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo).
JOSÉ MARÍA LASALLEOcho años de gobierno: una visión personal de España (JOSÉ MARÍA AZNAR)JAVIER ZARZALEJOSPalabra de vasco. La parla imprecisa del soberanismo ()TULIO DEMICHELISi me quieres escribir (PEDRO CORRAL)JOSÉ LUIS RESTÁN¡Levantaos! ¡vamos! (JUAN PABLO II)MOISÉS RUBIAS BARRERAOccidente contra occidente (ANDRE GLUCKSMANN)MIGUEL ÁNGEL QUINTANILLA NAVARROEl poder legislativo estatal en el estado autonómico (ENRIQUE ARNALDO / JORDI DE JUAN)JOSÉ MANUEL DE TORRESRetos de la sociedad biotecnológica. Ciencia y Ética ()
04.30.2014. On 25 May, Italians will take part in the elections to the European Parliament for the eighth time in their history. The first time was in 1979. In those elections, which are now historic, Democrazia Cristiana won 36.45% of the votes, followed by the Italian Partito Comunista, which managed to win 29.57% of the votes. Today, many other political actors will compete for the 73 seats that are allocated to Italy in the European Parliament. The same number of seats as the United Kingdom, while only France and Germany hold greater parliamentary representation, with 74 and 96 seats respectively.
04.28.2014. On 14 April, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the European Union, gathered in Luxembourg, gave the green light to designate 2015 as the European Year for Development. Since 1957, the EU’s cooperation policy has been increasingly broadened until reaching more than 130 developing countries. Currently, the EU, together with its Member States, constitutes the largest giver of Official Aid—56,500 million euros in 2013, more than half of the world total—. The EU is also the leading humanitarian aid donor and, only in 2011, assisted more than 150 million people in 80 countries.
04.25.2014. The Carnation Revolution put an end to one of the longest dictatorships in the recent European history, and one of the most deceptive dictatorships established in the old continent throughout the 1930s. It was deceptive because, under the guise of a benevolent dictatorship, a highly repressive regime was concealed, as shown by the dark history of its feared political police, the PIDE. It was deceptive because, under a semi-liberal political structure, a true personal dictatorship was developed, that of the Head of the Council of Ministers, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.
04.25.2014. Friday, April 25th marks the 40th anniversary of the coup d’état that put an end to the Estado Novo and started a political change process that would lead to the current Portuguese democracy. The anniversary is surrounded, as it could not be otherwise when it comes to the country’s culture, by nostalgia and melancholy, the pitiful expression of a society that is not only going through a deep economic crisis but has also reached the mid-life crisis of its democracy.
04.23.2014. The Balkans of 2014 are certainly not those of 1914. While Ukraine and Syria’s crises make us reflect on possible similarities between the current Europe and that of the outbreak of World War I, the Balkans are much more reminiscent of the wars in former Yugoslavia (1991-1999), which implied the country’s destruction and break-up and the subsequent appearance of seven new States. Of these, two are already members of the European Union (Slovenia and Croatia); two have signed the Association Agreement with the EU (Montenegro and Serbia), and three are stuck with their internal problems (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo).
07.01.2004. JOSÉ MARÍA LASALLEOcho años de gobierno: una visión personal de España (JOSÉ MARÍA AZNAR)JAVIER ZARZALEJOSPalabra de vasco. La parla imprecisa del soberanismo ()TULIO DEMICHELISi me quieres escribir (PEDRO CORRAL)JOSÉ LUIS RESTÁN¡Levantaos! ¡vamos! (JUAN PABLO II)MOISÉS RUBIAS BARRERAOccidente contra occidente (ANDRE GLUCKSMANN)MIGUEL ÁNGEL QUINTANILLA NAVARROEl poder legislativo estatal en el estado autonómico (ENRIQUE ARNALDO / JORDI DE JUAN)JOSÉ MANUEL DE TORRESRetos de la sociedad biotecnológica. Ciencia y Ética ()
