Elect a president
The rise of the extreme right means that the much-neglected European Parliament is about to enter a political high-risk zone
Opinion
Bills designed by fools
The Spanish rate system is as difficult to understand as the documents utility companies send to their customers
Democratic recession
Distrust of politicians in Spain means the Socialist Party’s relaunch runs the risk of being stillborn
OPINION
Retreat of the American empire
At the height of the Cold War, no US ally would have talked back about spying
Bullocks and cannibals
When the first Christian missionaries in Madagascar spoke of "conquering the heart of the Malagasy people," it was taken literally
Pariahs of the Caribbean
The case of Juliana Deguis Pierre symbolizes the tragedy of some 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent, who have retroactively become "stateless persons"
"Salauds" indeed
The signatories of this manifesto in favor of prostitution take it for granted that women work in the trade freely, either as a remunerated job like any other, or just for pleasure
What we owe
Our huge debts and the extraordinary level of unemployment in Spain distinguish us from our neighbors, and make us "special"
The dog that didn't bark
The spying scandal is collapsing like a soufflé, with some optimists seeing the affair as a "sputnik moment" for the EU
Do-nothing policy
Rajoy lets problems fester because he thinks it desirable to let them harden into exasperation
Simians in Ohio
Several US states have determined that depriving someone of the right to bear arms because they are blind is "discriminatory"
Putting up a fight
While the rise of xenophobic populism in Europe is cause for concern, civil society is also showing the will to confront it
Warning to Washington
Rajoy slid down the plane of submission, saying that the foreign minister was merely to summon the US ambassador and "ask him for information" about the spying
Penalty
The Parot doctrine effectively made parole discretional, and was aimed, reasonably enough, at plugging a loophole that permitted these situations
Data addicts
The US administration may have been the victim of over-enthusiasm for new electronic espionage capabilities
opinion
Aznar vs Madrid
It all began with the megalomaniac T-4 airport terminal at Barajas in Madrid, planned in 1996 as soon as the new prime minister got his hands on the purse strings of power
No more manly kissing
When I was a teenager, Argentinean men simply shook hands. But about 20 years ago, the fad for kisses started
Presidential parley
Initial optimism about Obama’s foreign-policy aims has given way to some hard questions, starting with the use of drones
Encroaching inequality
When modernization enters a phase of maturity and the middle classes can grow no further, as is now the case in the West, equality of opportunity becomes a trap
Institutional dysfunction
Between global and local the old nation-states muddle along, trapped between a territorial decentralization that produces fragmentation
Communicating
Young people are celebrating, getting together to communicate and love and like each other, and each and every one of them carries a wonder widget with them
OPINION
The new Le Pen
Faced with imitative xenophobic policies by centrist governments, voters might prefer the McCoy
In defense of Madrid
The capital does not demand citizens’ undying allegiance but it does offer storytellers bounteous material
Sleepwalkers
An immigration policy worthy of the name ought to include a series of strategies aimed at some comprehensive means of dealing with the migratory phenomenon
The secular language
A surge of enthusiasm is prompted by the charter for schools, that admirable declaration of republican principles that is in every one of the 55,000 public schools in France
opinion
Unfallen dominos
The spectacle of American boys fighting in far-away rice paddies cried out for some geopolitical rationalization
Not like this
Europe’s xenophobic parties are no longer seen as extremists, but as political alternatives
The politics of hate
If democracy consists in the recognition and organization of individual liberty, how can we justify the portrayal of democratic life as a "cultural war?"
Not a movie
Her unemployment benefits were about to run out, and her husband's money wouldn't last forever…
Limbo
For the survivors of last week's wreck off Lampedusa, as for the others who have managed to reach land, another nightmare is awaiting