In a statement read on Cuban television Monday, Fidel Castro raised the possibility that he might not hold on to the country's top job forever. “My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor even more so, to obstruct the rise of people much younger," the statement read, "but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived."

Castro-watchers have been confused as ever by the mixed signals from the 81-year-old dictator, who has been sidelined due to illness for the last year and a half. Earlier in December, he was nominated for a seat in the National Assembly, a step towards nomination for another term as president. Castro has held the position for almost half a century.

German opinion on the communist leader's announcement was united on one front: the chance for Germany and Europe to take action on Cuba is now.

The conservative Financial Times Deutschland takes a market-oriented position that looks east for a solution to Cuba's problems:

"Since the fall of the Soviet Union, which once held its protecting hand over Havana, it's been clear that the Cuban regime wouldn't outlast its Maximo Lider."

"Domestically, the political handover to his brother has gone well. It's not that Raul Castro ended repression or made the country's markets open and successful. But the regime's power, which was expected to erode after Castro's illness, is still there."

"Castro has found a new partner in Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who's willing to support Cuba economically and holds it up as an ideological model. This 'joint venture' has given the socialists in Cuba a chance for survival, despite its ailing economy."

"The US -- which will pick a new president at the end of 2008 -- should pay attention. A revolution in Havana is, and will remain, unrealistic. But the retreat of Cuba's charismatic leader opens up a chance for George W. Bush's successor to turn away from the old course of confrontation and instead understand that integration into the global economy can change Cuba. After all, it worked for Mao's heirs."

The left-leaning Tagesspiegel has grudging praise for Castro's image management:

"Though (Cubans) suffer from a lack of spiritual freedom and material goods, they don't associate them with Castro. He's become a myth, a father figure. Cubans don't feel he has much to do with the leaden daily life under the regime."

Castro is smarter than (East Germany's communist leader Erich) Honecker or his own predecessor (Fulgencio) Batista. He's taking his leave like a snail: he's going slowly, but he's going. … And what better time for Europe to get closer than now, in the winter of the patriarch?"

And center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung calls for creativity as Germany tries to tackle relations with Castro's presumed successors:

"He withstood the American Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the ongoing US boycott and the collapse of the USSR, Cuba's main sponsor. He's one of the few socialists who didn't really lose the Cold War. … His island swims in the sea of capitalism, and yet the ailing captain still inspires revolutionaries."

"In Latin America, Castro has more friends in the winter of his life than ever before. They're named Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa. … They find a following first of all because US politics are less popular than ever before and secondly because there's lots of poverty and less wealth than ever, despite all the oil in these countries."

"For some, Castro was always a revolutionary and an autocrat at the same time -- the kind of guy you secretly hoped to meet some day."

"History would acquit him, Castro said once. Yet the present debate over the way forward with Cuba is cramped: In Berlin the cracks in the governing coalition reveal old divisions. The Christian Democrats (CDU) want to follow the obstinate US. After all, it does no harm -- Cuba's not as important as China, where contracts trump human rights. Part of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) are too right-leaning for a practical approach. … It's time for a reasonable dialogue with Cuba. With or without the faltering fossil Fidel."