European press review

The riots in the northern British city of Bradford are analysed in Austrian and French papers, while social unrest in France also comes under the spotlight.

French President Jacques Chirac is coming under increasing pressure regarding his cash payments for foreign trips before he became president.

The possible deployment of German peacekeepers in Macedonia is covered, along with analysis of the new political climate in Yugoslavia and Croatia.

More research, less spin

The Viennese daily Der Standard analyses the riots in Bradford, northern England, saying that the blame for them cannot be laid solely at the door of the British National Party.

The paper says it would be difficult to identify only one cause "which if removed would eliminate the problem".

The Labour Government and Prime Minister Tony Blair have underestimated the task of "crisis management" and the symptoms of hopelessness are accumulating, the paper says.

"After a month and a half of massive unrest, the next phase should be deeper research into the social causes of the problem, rather than the usual spin-doctoring."

The French daily Liberation wonders what sickness is affecting the towns in the north of England after the riots in Bradford, the fourth town to be hit in this way in recent weeks.

The paper offers its own answer: "Racism, poverty and segregation... each time, the same ingredients are at work". Moreover, the paper adds, "the extreme right once again acted as the detonator".

Unlucky 13s ordered off streets

Le Figaro in Paris reports on its front page on the fact that the country's State Council has confirmed a curfew for the under 13s in the city of Orleans, south of Paris.

"It's the first time that the highest administrative jurisdiction has validated such an initiative," the paper says, pointing out that similar attempts to impose curfews in other towns and cities have always been ruled illegal.

The paper adds that the curfew bans unaccompanied children under 13 years from being on the streets of three of the city's districts between 2300 and 0600.

It says that one of the State Council's members said the mayor of Orleans had wanted to protect minors from the dangers of being the victims of acts of violence and from getting mixed up in such acts.

French presidential 'card trick'

An editorial in Liberation looks at the use of so-called secret funds by successive French governments and political figures, and cash payments by President Jacques Chirac for foreign trips by himself and his family.

The paper says three leading deputies who support Mr Chirac have called for the freezing of the secret, but legal funds - which Mr Chirac says he used to pay for the trips when he was mayor of Paris - to deflect public attention from his trips.

"This crude three-card trick shows that Chirac's friends don't have a very flattering view of the French people," the paper adds.

The paper says the president's traditional Bastille Day speech on 14 July has never made Mr Chirac's advisers sweat as much as this year. For the first time, with allegations about wrongdoing on Paris City Council during his time as mayor, "Chirac is personally under fire," it adds.

"He is therefore on the defensive and one can bet that his best form of defence will be attack."

Germany's Macedonian pledge

The Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung carries an article on a possible deployment of German troops in Macedonia.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder says the ruling coalition will send its soldiers as part of the Nato contingent without the support of soldiers who belong to opposition parties if necessary, it says.

The paper adds that he explained that the government "will act according to its responsibilities based on its majority in parliament".

Opposition Christian Democrats, it says, have asked for more money for the armed forces if they are to agree to the deployment. "The actual amount should be more than the Macedonian deployment would cost," it quotes one of the party's leaders as saying.

Escape from the Balkans

The Budapest daily Nepszabadsag describes Croatia's willingness to follow Serbia in extraditing its war crime suspects to The Hague tribunal as its attempt "to escape from the Balkans".

"The Hague has led to the collapse of two governments and two legends: the legend of the suffering Serbs and the legend of the suffering Croats," it says.

According to the paper, "the feeling of martyrdom has survived both dictators, both strong men, Tudjman and Milosevic", but this feeling has been overcome by a more powerful force, "need".

"It is their need that has brought the Yugoslav and Croatian regimes to the path of talks with The Hague. Neither of them want to be seen as a 'Balkan' state," the paper says.

The idea of "escape from the Balkans" also features in a commentary in the pro-government Budapest daily, Magyar Nemzet.

The paper sees Croatia's efforts to seek ties with Hungary, Italy and Austria as its attempt "to escape from the 'western Balkans'", while it interprets other regional plans as the international community's escape from the problems of the Balkans.

The paper sees a recently published German opposition plan for a Southeast European Union - to include Greece, Albania, the former Yugoslav states and Hungary - as a means to solve the region's problems "without the involvement of foreign military force".

It says that the increasing number of ideas about new sub-regions or unions in this part of Europe shows the international community's frustration at not finding a solution to the problems of the Balkans.

Bratislava's Narodna Obroda says that Croatia, just like its neighbours, "is experiencing the trauma and political consequences of the multi-ethnic conflict that accompanied the demise of Tito's Yugoslavia".

At the moment, the most visible part of this trauma is the Croatian prime minister's decision to extradite to The Hague two generals regarded by many as national heroes.

Narodna Obroda says that the prime minister risked domestic stability rather than rocking Croatia's international position.

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