No Australian republic

The No to an Australian republic is not a Yes to the monarchy. Only a small part of the Australian public wants Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. Despite this, 55 percent of Australian voters decided against a republic on Saturday.

Prime minister John Howard sees himself as the winner. An archconservative in almost every area of everyday politics, ideologically closer to the '50s than to the new millennium, he was and is a strict defender of the status quo. "Why should we change something that has served us so well up to now?"

The opponents stirred the population into panic with hair- raising arguments. They won over the sportspeople with the scenario that an Australian republic might be shut out of the Commonwealth Games. They threatened immigrants with the loss of their double nationality. And they lectured all Australians that the election of the president through the parliament would give too much power to the politicians.

And what did Howard do? Nothing. Instead of using his authority as head of the government to calm the situation, he let the grotesque arguments flow freely. The result: millions put a no vote into the ballot box because they were insecure, not because they really wanted a queen 18,000 kilometers away as their head of state.

-- Tages-Anzeiger, Zurich, Switzerland