One is clearing her head in the Alpine air, fine-tuning a campaign that should win her a second four-year term. Another has gone back to his native Lisbon to spend his sunshine rest on a big speech he hopes will earn him five more years in office.
Yet another is grappling with intimations of political mortality at home in Fife after 12 years at the top. A fellow European prime minister insists he is avoiding his usual opulent retreat, which has been soiled by seedy stories of prostitutes and pillowtalk.
These are just some of Europe’s leaders’ hopes and plans for the holiday season — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Jose Manuel Barroso of the European commission, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
In August, the big cities of Europe thin out and close down. The government machines grind away in low gear and leaders try to grab some quality family, personal or cultural time. Except that many find it impossible. Because of their workaholic habits, the exigencies of the 24-hour news cycle and the ubiquity of the mobile phone and e-mail, a crisis is always only a phone call away.
If it’s time to get away from it all, some plainly will struggle. A few leaders will manage three or four weeks, others will be lucky to muster as many days. Some will get none at all.
Pity Fredrik Reinfeldt, prime minister of Sweden, which has taken over the rotating presidency of the EU. He won’t get much of a break.
“He’s trying to have a few days off. But it’s difficult. You couldn’t really describe it as a holiday,” a Swedish government spokeswoman said.
Nonetheless, it matters that modern leaders demonstrate an aptitude not only for action, but for relaxation too. Former US president George W. Bush did not have to fake it, seeming to spend much of his time in office at his Texas ranch.
Much more of a policy wonk, US President Barack Obama will manage only a week off the US’ east coast. The photo-opportunities will focus on a carefree politician relaxing with family and friends at a Republican billionaire’s estate on Martha’s Vineyard. But at least two more houses will be needed for traveling staff.
Merkel is hiking this week in Italy after taking in the opening of the Bayreuth festival with her opera buff husband, Joachim Sauer, last weekend. Her choice of holiday is both foreign and familiar — the South Tyrol is the bit of mountainous northern Italy where the locals speak German.
She has a lot on her plate. When she gets back to her in-tray in Berlin mid-month, she will have a mere six weeks before starring in Europe’s biggest election this year, fighting for a second term. She might have been forgiven for forgoing the summer break. But in a country addicted to holidaymaking, that might have put voters off.
And if you are Berlusconi, you can choose between at least 18 personal properties. The billionaire prime minister says he is trying to redeem a tawdry image by holidaying in the Abruzzo region, devastated by April’s earthquake. Chances are he will stay away from Villa Certosa, his Sardinian estate where the poolside parties have acquired a sheen of indecency.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
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