Vienna, October 12, 2023
Eurotopics today usefully surveys press opinion across Europe about the ongoing slaughter in the Middle East, and the prospects of an unthinkable spread of the conflict. The papers look at the prospects for Europe on Sunday of a possible change of government in Poland, after what Rzeczpospolita describes as “a grim celebration of democracy”, writing: “never before have so many negative emotions been stoked nor so many people convinced that Poland is dramatically divided.”
The FT has a thoughtful article (paywall) on the poisonous 20-year-long feud between Jarosław Kaczyński, triumphant leader of the Law and Justice party (PiS), and former European Council president Donald Tusk, who leads the centrist Civic Platform. Kaczyński has described him as “Pure evil . . . [The] enemy of the nation . . . A traitor who must be morally exterminated.”
Eurotopics also looks at the formation of a pro-Russian new government under Robert Fico after recent elections in Slovakia, and debates about the apparent sabotage of the Finnish-Estonian gas pipeline.