There are moments in history when the geopolitical balance seems to shift clearly in one direction or the other. Currently within the EU, power seems to have just moved noticeably from France to Germany on a clear issue of substance. It is not the first of such shifts and, while it may not be the last either. But it is substantial and merits comment. I refer to the issue of the Union of the Mediterranean.

Last May, when Nicolas Sarkozy was running for president of France, I wrote on this page that he was “Europe’s best hope.” Mr Sarkozy won the votes of 53 percent of the record 85 percent of the French electorate that came out to vote in the presidential elections. The French approved of his tough rhetoric against the Islamist “thugs” (his word) who control many no-go neighborhoods in the country, where more than 10 percent of the population already adheres to the Muslim faith.

Every now and then the European Institutions produce one of their surveys of public opinion. Some are regular tracking polls and then they have special event polls. The latest is one celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Common Assembly, now better known as the European Parliament.

We have to take “Eurobarometer” with a pinch of salt. Remember in a survey that came out only a week after the 'No' votes on the Constitution it blithely announced that huge majorities in France, Holland and the United Kingdom were in favour. It also highlights that less than a third of our citizens have heard of any EP activity in the last few months.

Spanish voters on March 9 narrowly re-elected Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero to another four-year term in office. But he defeated his rival, Mariano Rajoy, the head of the center-right Popular Party, by only a narrow margin and fell far short of gaining an absolute majority in the lower house of parliament.

As a result, Zapatero will need to establish a coalition with one or more of Spain’s smaller nationalist and leftist parties in order to form a government. This implies that Zapatero will again be hostage to the whims of radical minorities, which will hamper his ability govern. This will almost certainly further exacerbate the deep divisions in Spanish society that surfaced during his first term, which began in 2004.

A quote from the minutes of the European Parliament’s Conference of Presidents (CoP), 6 March 2008:

CoP - 06/03/2008 - Item 4.4: Statements by the President: Movie on caricatures

The CoP heard Mr Blokland announcing the likelihood of the publication of a movie on caricatures on Islam by Mr Wilders on 28 March. It decided not to offer any space in the European Parliament for such a movie.

A quote from the Dutch press agency NIS, 8 March 2008

The police's National Diversity Expertise Centre (LECD) wants sex allowed in all public parks in the Netherlands. The police institute has advised the cities to follow the example of Amsterdam, [...] LECD is now calling on Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht to tolerate ‘cruising’ gays in all their parks. In a letter to the administrators of the three cities, the police institute says that by regulating sex in public, the safety of homosexuals from ‘queer-bashers’ can be better guaranteed.

The results of the first round of the French local elections are as expected. Sarkozy’s UMP party lost, the socialists won. Since the UMP and the Socialist Party are virtually interchangeable the results are most likely to confirm the Bible: there is nothing new under the sun. Only a forward leap of nationalism would have added some novelty, but that has certainly not happened.

A quote from Aftenposten, 7 March 2008

The crime rate in Oslo has been growing at an alarming rate and recent statistics show the Norwegian capital had 20 percent more robberies last year than in 2006.

The Labour Party has got its way. That is the plain consequence of the votes in the British Parliament this week. They have used every Parliamentary device and chicanery to ram through the bill ratifying the Treaty of Lisbon, despite their promise that the people of the United Kingdom would have their say in a referendum. This may resolve for Labour the short-term problem of avoiding a messy and inevitably unsuccessful referendum campaign, the consequences of which would have been dire for them.

Tomorrow the French go to the polls for the first round of the municipal elections. The poster to the right is of Mohamed Latrèche, a Muslim running for mayor of Strasbourg on the PMF party (Party of the Muslims of France). He stands for “real change” (le vrai changement). Gaëlle Mann, a most useful French website, asks:

Is it normal in a “laic” country (where Church and State are separate), for a purely religious party such as the PMF to vie for the votes of the electorate?

A reader offers an answer:

Of course, dear Gaëlle, it is perfectly normal for a Muslim religious party to present candidates in the election, since we live in a “laic” country. On the other hand it would be abnormal for a Catholic religious party to present candidates, since we live in a “laic” country.

Another poster that you can view at the website lists the urgent demands of the PMF party:

•    A Muslim cemetery with perpetual rights. The eventual elimination of a tomb considered by Muslims to be a profanation. [Note: In France and other continental European countries cemeteries are only temporary. They are bulldozered over after 50 years. If the families want the dead reburied they have to pay. Most families do not care.]
•    A school for girls who are deprived of an education by the liberty-killing law on headscarves
•    Halal meals in school cafeterias, hospitals, etc...
•    Dignified places of worship responding to the needs of the Muslims of Strasbourg
•    Special schedules at swimming pools for Muslim girls