European press review
Tensions between Spain and Britain over a nuclear
submarine's visit to Gibraltar, the South Ossetia conflict, racism in France and
Russia's Yukos affair are the main topics in today's European papers.
'Tensions'
Newspapers in Spain see relations with Britain at
rock bottom after the country's foreign minister on Wednesday described the
planned stopover by a British nuclear submarine in Gibraltar a "provocation".
The submarine's visit is raising tensions to unnecessary levels
El Pais
The submarine's visit is raising tensions to unnecessary levels
El Pais
The HMS Tireless, due in Gibraltar on Friday, was
at the centre of a row between the two countries in 2000, when it underwent
repairs in the British colony for nearly a year.
El Pais says relations are already strained by the
failure of a shared sovereignty plan for Gibraltar in 2002, what it calls the
"lukewarm chemistry" between British Prime Minister Tony and his Spanish
counterpart Jose Rodriguez Zapatero and a series of diplomatic spats.
"The submarine's visit is raising tensions to
unnecessary levels," the paper says, and urges both countries to patch things
up.
"The time has come for the two governments to get
their act together and tone down the stridency, in the knowledge that for the
moment, the chance of a definitive solution to the sovereignty issue has
vanished from the horizon."
Madrid's ABC agrees, saying that the Gibraltar
issue is adding to friction caused by it calls Spain's "hasty" withdrawal of its
troops from Iraq.
"HMS Tireless's visit is the latest bill Spain's
interests and image are being made to pay in the international arena," it
laments.
'Powder keg'
The Russian press continue to focus on tensions
with Georgia over the South Ossetia after the region's authorities detained some
40 Georgian soldiers.
The Moscow daily Novyye Izvestia says the conflict
has put Russia, which the Georgians accuse of backing South Ossetian separatist
ambitions, in a difficult position.
The latest events have shown that Tbilisi is banking on force
Krasnaya Zvezda
The latest events have shown that Tbilisi is banking on force
Krasnaya Zvezda
"This could cause a lot of bother for Russia, which
will be criticised whatever it does - for failing to intervene if it keeps its
distance, or for throwing its weight about if it tries to put either of the
sides in its place," the newspaper muses.
The Russian defence ministry paper Krasnaya Zvezda
is disinclined to trust the Georgian authorities' assurances that they want to
resolve the dispute peacefully.
"The latest events have shown that Tbilisi is
banking on force," the paper believes.
In response to remarks by Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili describing South Ossetia as a "powder keg", the article
says: "It is of course dangerous to sit on a powder keg, but playing with
matches whilst you're sitting on it verges on madness."
The popular daily Trud uses a similar metaphor to
blame both sides.
"Georgia's leaders seem to have forgotten the tale
about the match that burnt down the whole forest," it says, but also criticises
the South Ossetian leadership for misinterpreting Georgia's dispute with the
Russian peacekeepers as an attack on itself.
"They have their share of hot-heads there, too."
Lessons of history
In France, reports that suburbs are becoming
ghettoes for the Muslim minority, continuing tension over the ban on headscarves
and a rise in the number of anti-Semitic attacks have pushed concern over the
state of community relations to the top of the agenda.
On Thursday, President Jacques Chirac used a visit
to a southern French village famous for sheltering Jews during World War II to
urge the French to fight all forms of racism - a move praised by the daily
Liberation .
"At a time when racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic
violence is rising sharply in France," the paper says in an editorial, "the
president was right to stress that the state will respond with unswerving
resolve against acts of hatred".
But while welcoming Mr Chirac's warning that the
lessons of the past should not be forgotten, the paper warns that the feelings
of marginalisation it says many young Muslims are experiencing in today's France
are the real danger.
"History has its virtues, but it is not enough when
the handing down of democratic values is jeopardised by social exclusion," it
concludes.
Similarly, an analyst in Le Nouvel Observateur
regrets the fact that no Muslim figures were invited to the ceremony attended by
representatives of the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths.
"This was a mistake which is bound to give rise to
inter-communal tensions," he says.
'Russian scenario'
Newspaper across Europe continue to take an
interest in Russia's Yukos affair.
In Germany, the Berliner Zeitung finds it odd that
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder did not discuss the possible bankruptcy of
Russia's biggest oil exporter in his talks with President Putin in Moscow on
Thursday.
The paper believes the reason may lie in the fact
that Eon, Germany's largest energy concern, and its subsidiary Ruhrgas, have a
stake in the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which may benefit from Yukos
bankruptcy.
"The German economy has bet on the right horse," it
argues, adding that this explains the German government's "blatant complacency"
on the Yukos issue.
France's leading daily Le Monde targets its ire at
Vladimir Putin, whom it accuses of waging a "judicial, fiscal and police
guerrilla war" against the Yukos group and its main shareholder, Mikhail
Khodorkovsky.
"You cannot both stand for democracy," it says,
"and at the same time flout it by using methods inherited from communism."
Meanwhile, in Russia itself, the vice-president of
the body representing the country's business community carefully ventures to
criticise the handling of the affair.
In an article in Rossiskaya Gazeta , Igor Yurgens
says his foreign colleagues are "most surprised" to see a "wholly successful
company" suddenly on the verge of bankruptcy.
"It's all a rather Russian scenario," he remarks.
"In theory this should not happen."
The European press review is compiled by BBC
Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early
printed editions.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3878989.stm
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/3878989.stm
Published: 2004/07/09 04:40:34 GMT
© BBC MMIV
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/europe/3878989.stm
Europe's papers debate tensions over Gibraltar, South Ossetia, racism in France and Russia's Yukos affair