New Europe: what we've learned
From welfare to immigration to the arts, we round up what our correspondents – and readers – have made of New Europe
The Palace of Culture towers over commuters and shoppers in central Warsaw. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
The Guardian's New Europe series launched at perhaps the busiest time for international news since 9/11. Revolution in north Africa and the Middle East, a triple disaster in Japan, Ivory Coast on the brink. What could a month-long journey through Europe's most important countries tell us about the crises of the day?
Plenty. Within hours of launching Germany week, the nuclear disaster in Japan was contaminating German politics, forcing a rethink on nuclear power and propelling the Greens to a remarkable electoral triumph.France week kicked off at the same time as the French-led air assault (pictured below) on Muammar Gaddafi's regime, which rebooted not only French foreign policy but perhaps the Sarkozy presidency. The immigration debate in southern Europe faced a new dynamic with the sudden spike in the number of Africans heading north across the Mediterranean.
All this at a time when the leaders in all four countries we examined faced questions about their mandate: Nicolas Sarkozy and Poland's Donald Tusk are both girding for imminent re-election battles; Spain will get a new prime minister next year after José Luis Zapatero announced he would not be seeking a third term; and Germany's Angela Merkel suffered an electoral setback in Baden-Württemberg.
But New Europe month told us most about the post-crash Europe that we live in. It gave us a chance to understand how our neighbours are dealing with the biggest economic upheaval in a generation, an opportunity to find out who had the best answers to universal European problems of ageing populations, listless youth, insolvent governments, bankrupt welfare systems, restive regions and often unfair health and education systems.
Economics and welfare
Our correspondents found that when it comes to economics, Europe's post-crisis nations are a little like Tolstoy's families: happy economies are alike, but every unhappy economy is unhappy in its own way. In France,les misérables are striking workers, jobless youth and a president who has had to water down his grand designs for Thatcherite reform. In Spain, the unhappy are residents of construction-boom towns that now sit almost empty, the bankers who are all but bust and the one in five unemployed. In Poland, the unfortunates are those on the wrong end ofdeepening inequality.
Ailing economies weaken the power of the state, nowhere more critically than in France, where the sense of entitlement now dwarfs the ability of the state to subserve it. Polly Toynbee found that in a country which diverts a full third of its national income to pensions, income support, health and social services, "cross-party commitment to welfare runs deep". Readers online and of the paper were as divided as the French themselves on the issue of whether the generous French welfare state was still affordable. For some, the country's system is a model for the UK; others expressed concern about its top-down economy and an emergent two-tier system for workers, in which those on low pay and temporary contracts are excluded from the security, tax breaks and welfare payments enjoyed by their permanent counterparts. One reader, Gwan, said: "No one in my office has a permanent contract, and we're all educated to master's level and employed by the state. Job insecurity aside, there's zero hope for advancement."
Health and education
France's health system impressed our correspondents, beating the NHS on most yardsticks. The picture was more nuanced elsewhere, butreaders took issue with the suggestion that Spanish healthcare and medical staff have been protected from cutbacks during the financial downturn. Healthcare standards vary greatly between regions as the organisation of the communidades autónomas play their parts, they said, with one reader citing a 10% cut in Catalonia's health budget this year. There was much praise, however, for the work of the donor co-ordinators mentioned in the article and for hospitals' treatment of family members and visitors.
On schools, our correspondents were surprised to find that elitism, selection and ghettoisation were not just a British disease. The German system of streaming at 10, which heavily favours the middle classes, felt like a formalisation of the UK's own patchwork system in which the well-to-do try to buy better futures for their children.
The Spanish mix of concertadas (academies) and faith schools alongside down-at-heel state schools also felt deeply familiar. France, with its long school days, rigorous grading system and uniform curriculum, is falling down international league tables.
Immigration
Also familiar are the various debates across the continent on immigration, minorities and integration. In France, Angelique Chrisafisspoke to Marine Le Pen, pictured, dauphine of the far right, who still argues that immigration is a threat to the economy and security of France, and speaks of immigrants as "neverending queues of foreigners". Her Front National scored well in local elections and an opinion poll found she was more popular than Sarkozy.
In Germany, steeped in a sulphurous debate about whether Turks are doing enough to integrate, Gary Younge found housing projects where there was "not a lot of tension here, but there's also not necessarily a lot of contact". Readers weighed in on both sides: many took issue with "multiculturalism". JoeDeM wrote: "It seems that Germany has similar problems to the UK when it comes to the integration of Muslim immigrant communities. Hardly surprising." Ostberlin offered a first-person perspective that provided a nice counterpoint: "Although everybody speaks about education all the time, I think the poison of racism is the key issue; if, like Günther Wallraff, you treat people with affection and dignity, they respond in kind. This is my experience."
In Spain and Poland, our writers found countries preoccupied with a different kind of migration: exodus. With jobs hard to find, a new cohort of Spanish youth is preparing to move overseas to find work. Poles did the same, of course, throughout the past decade. Amelia Gentleman found that many are now returning, and not always with good stories. One migrant, JanPomorski, said: "I was one of those migrants myself, came back after two years … I was just another Pole living in the ghetto (Stratford, London) for 900 pounds/month, in overcrowded place, struggling to save some money. As for the promised land, I can say just one thing: agencies. Some work agencies are advertising, hiring, and even training in Poland (like I was trained) and as soon as you start working they don't give a sheet about you any more."
Gender and family life
Zoe Williams found Germany preoccupied with its low birth rate, Francesuffused with pervasive, tacit misogyny, and Spain with a lot of women in its government, but many more discriminated against in the job market. Readers challenged the view of France, pointing to a proliferation of political and business high flyers, with lavieenrose offering this personal perspective: "As a woman who has lived in France for 40 years, I worked my way up the corporate ladder to senior management positions back in the supposedly dark days of the 70s and 80s. Not easy, particularly with two children, but not exceptional by any means and probably easier than in the UK due to the higher percentage of working women, superior maternity benefits and well-organised childcare facilities. And why no mention of leading French businesswomen such as Anne Lauvergeon, president of one of the biggest companies in the world, Areva?"
However, support for the piece came from mireillep: "It is anecdotal but I find women here so subservient in subtle ways. Men rule, no doubt about that. In this Latin society the male has space, he is entitled. It is indefinite, it is subtle, but even my British husband feels it. They strut their stuff and it's OK. Women work, have babies (the highest birthrate in Europe), do the washing, the shopping, the cooking, the kids' stuff (82% of childrearing is carried out by women, 80% of domestic tasks too) and they get depressed (recent studies done) and anxious. France is the highest consumer of antidepressants."
Our G2 writers, meanwhile, found young European families grappling with the same issues that their British counterparts face: trying to be good parents as well as good professionals; short of time, space and money.
Art and culture
Correspondents found arts at the sharp end of the cuts agenda – even in France, which has traditionally earmarked lavish funds to ensure the persistence of the exception culturelle. Some readers argued that Spain's art scene might not be as bleak as our piece portrayed, pointing to "an overwhelming amount of art that doesn't involve gallery spaces, public or private". Street theatre, outdoor performances and exhibitions are found all year round, some readers said, and there has been an improvement in Spanish arts since the 1980s and 90s, with increased involvement of public institutions at national, regional and local level, leading to new collections, grants, exhibitions and museums. Others suggested Spain was "a cultural desert" that neglected to nurture artistic talent at youth and university levels and also lacked cultural programming on TV – factors that are driving Spanish talent abroad.
Marie Winckler's appeal for new, subversive French theatre directors, actors and playwrights produced a wide range of recommendations on who to follow, from the Théâtre de la Colline in Paris to the writers Bernard-Marie Koltès, Jean-Luc Lagarce and Olivier Py, and actor/writers such as Joël Pommerat. Commenters broadly agreed there was a shortage in this area of French theatre, with some suggesting the stagnation was being felt in other cultural areas such as the visual arts, too, and was fed by being "a closed space which only services a small group [of friends and influencers]".
Dorota Maslowsa's summary of the development and future of Polish art since the fall of communism was welcomed by commenters as "interesting" and "well-observed", although one worried: "I just hope that 'modern' and 'universal' are not euphemisms for 'western' and 'homogenous'."
Europeans
Readers were invited to send us short videos in support of their favourite European country. Spain emerged as the most popular and Spaniards the most likely to nominate their own land, possibly helped by a Twitter campaign urging Spaniards to fly the national flag. "Where else can you ski in the morning and go to the beach in the afternoon?" pondered Cristina and Lola.
Miles from Wiesbaden took us on a tour of his city to show us "why Germany is a nice place", explaining that Germans are old-fashioned people who love traditional food, nature and romance. Italians made wry references to Silvio Berlusconi's extracurricular activities while extolling their food, lifestyle and landscape. Ambra told us: "I don't eat pasta every day, drive a Ferrari or participate in bunga-bunga parties with my prime minister."
As for the European project itself, battered by the debt crisis, correspondents found Germany determined to defend its national interest, Spain's prime minister told Giles Tremlett the country would not need a bailout – words that take on greater significance in the wake of the Portuguese cry for help this week – and Timothy Garton-Ash's overview of Poland's journey to being a "normal" European country elicited plenty of responses. Alex, a 28-year-old living in Warsaw, said: "I am surprised how well authors of articles from the series New Europe describe Poland." Talking of his own, post-communist generation, he went on: "When I observe young people, born in the 80s and 90s, it is obvious they have no complexes, they feel Europeans, and speak at least one foreign language. It is the generation of our parents and grandparents who still live in the past, slowing down reforms and any other necessary changes in the country. I'm not sure if we should complain that much about the situation when people who govern still don't understand our reality – we are Europeans with European problems just living on Polish territory."Guardian readers also shared their views of Poland – its cities, countryside, food and people – in ourFlickr group, inspired by David Levene's shots of Warsaw.
No comments:
Post a Comment