European press review

The president of the United States flies to Vietnam keen on turning over a new leaf. But in the Middle East the leaves are apparently not for turning, while the voters of Bosnia seem to want to re-read the previous page. And Mad Cow Disease finds itself a hobby as a political football.

Hail to which chief?

Austria's Kurier likens the continuing search for the next American president to "a lengthy hostage drama".

It warns that people's patience is wearing thin and the waiting becoming almost unbearable. "America wants to know once and for all if it is to be run by Republican George Bush or Democrat Al Gore," it says.

Better late than never?

"In spite of the current post-electoral mess, America does have a president," its compatriot Die Presse reminds us. "His name is Bill Clinton and he is about to crown the end of his term by paying an official visit to Hanoi."

Pondering what it calls "a trip pregnant with symbolism", the paper says that the United States is set to "heal the scars of old wounds".

"Clinton wanted to go down in history as the man who secured a Middle East peace deal. This fell through, but his Vietnamese visit will give him another chance" of a place in the history books, the paper points out.

"Vietnam: Clinton to turn over a new page", says the main headline in the French Le Figaro. "In America's collective memory, Vietnam is a war," the paper says, suggesting it is time it was turned into a country. However "those close to the president think it highly unlikely that he will apologise on the United States's behalf" for the war that killed over 58,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese.

Mad cows and politics: Here's the beef

With their sights on the 2002 presidential election, France's 'cohabiting' Gaullist president and Socialist prime minister are trying to score political points off each other over the issue of Mad Cow Disease, or BSE. At least such is the opinion of the centrist French daily Le Monde, in an editorial under the heading of "The technocrat and the demagogue".

Prime Minister Lionel Jospin comes across as "a technocrat more concerned with the views of the experts than with public opinion", the paper says in an editorial. His delay in declaring a ban on animal meal "gave the impression of a man deaf to the wishes of the people".

"Above all he was outplayed by Jacques Chirac, whose earlier call for a ban conveyed an image of greater concern for the anxieties of his fellow-citizens," the paper adds.

An editorial in Turin's La Stampa takes issue with the Italian authorities' reaction of "hypocritical amazement" to BSE-related developments.

The disease, it points out, "has been roaming around Europe for a decade". It has also been "in and out of the TV news and featured in discussion programmes that could be repeated every year without anyone noticing".

The paper calls for strict legislation on the labelling of meat at the point of sale.

The Berliner Zeitung takes more of a grassroots view, as it were, noting that the high cost of testing for BSE is deterring German farmers and butchers from taking action.

And where such action is taken, German consumers fail to respond, it adds.

The paper quotes Gerd Meemken, a butcher from Lower Saxony who demands that all cattle entering his slaughterhouse must be BSE-tested, as saying that "everyone is interested in the tests but no-one wants to pay for them".

No war, no peace, much blood

The Swiss Le Temps notes that 15th November 2000 was "the symbolic date of the proclamation of the Palestinian State", adopted in 1988 at the Algiers Conference.

"But the Palestinian flags were not hoisted yesterday, they were used instead to cover the bodies of 'martyrs' at funerals throughout the Palestinian territories," the paper says.

"As if to add to the symbolism of the day," it adds, "Leah Rabin was buried yesterday side-by-side with her husband, the man who initiated the Oslo peace process."

London's THE Times says it is "hard to avoid the conclusion that the peace process is in a state of suspension and will be there for months, if not years, to come".

"Whether the political temperature moves beyond simmering to raging depends on decisions that are imminent," the paper says. It notes that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has said that a unilateral declaration of independence was "very close".

Such a gesture, the paper points out, "would be, in effect, a unilateral repudiation of serious diplomatic engagement with Israel".

"The most probable result is 'no war, no peace', a state of attrition that flirts with, but invariably falls short of, total conflict and which makes consistent calm impossible too," THE Times concludes.

Bosnia's backwards step

"New setback in Bosnia", says the title of an editorial in Madrid's El Pais of the fact that "the ultranationalist and exclusivist parties are emerging as the winners" of the general elections there.

"The defeat of moderation is all the more relevant since Bosnia is practically the West's protectorate," the paper says.

"In spite of their powers, Europe and the United States have not been able to unravel the tangled web of corruption, tribalism and boss politics that pervades the former Yugoslav republic," the paper adds.

Someone out there likes us!

The Hungarian Magyar Hirlap seems slightly surprised by the good news that the famous overseas credit-rating institute, Moody's, has rated Hungary at the top A-grade.

"This is what the financial world, this globalised world electronic game is like: where investments are safe, the whole country is seen under a good light," the paper says.

It attributes the good credit rating to the latest European Union report, "which said that our country has made the most progress in changing into a market economy, in structural reforms and legal harmonization with the Union".

But the paper warns its readers not to get carried away: "It's good news that our reputation is good in the world, but let's keep our critical attitude towards ourselves", it concludes.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.