European press review

Attacks on Jewish institutions in Europe, and the continent's role in the Middle East crisis feature widely in the European press today. The papers also comment on the Ukrainian parliamentary elections, and the late Queen Mother's symbolic status is reviewed.

European anti-Semitism

In France, where Easter weekend's synagogue attacks took place, Liberation calls for the perpetrators to be severely punished.

It says the Jewish community has become a "scapegoat" for all the "injustice" felt by these "marginalised and ghettoized" young attackers, "who are often from immigrant families".

The Frankfurter Rundschau believes the incidents provide sufficient argument for Europeans to take the initiative in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Anti-Semitic attacks in France and Belgium, it says, are a "direct response to the escalation of violence in the Middle East" and demonstrate the "absurdity of the notion that conflict between Israelis and Palestinians can be limited to the Middle East".

"If only out of pure self-interest, the EU states must coordinate their foreign policy and throw their diplomatic weight in the balance," the paper argues.

The Berliner Zeitung feels the "inaction" of Americans and Europeans in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is largely coloured by "the insoluble nature of the conflict" as well as disunity among EU members.

"Americans and Europeans will have no effect with appeals, diplomacy, lamentations and telephone conversations. If they want to stop the bloody goings on they will have to get more involved than before."

The Slovak daily Pravda describes Nato as the only international body capable of stopping the spiralling violence in Israel.

Yugoslavia's war criminals

Germany's Die Welt carries a commentary on Belgrade's failure to extradite war crimes suspects to The Hague, "which shows that Serbia is a long way from becoming a member of the Western community of states".

It blames Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, whose refusal to extradite Yugoslav citizens to The Hague could lead to a US freeze on aid worth $40m. "This is money that the virtually bankrupt Serbian economy urgently needs to get back on its feet," it says.

Mr Kuchma certainly feels more at ease with Mr Putin than with Western leaders

Le Monde - France

Slobodan Milosevic, "whose trial has created an anti-Western and anti-tribunal mood in Serbia" is bound to experience a sense of satisfaction, from this development, Die Welt says.

Ukrainian elections

Le Monde in Paris looks at Sunday's Ukrainian parliamentary elections, in which former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko's reformist alliance has established a clear lead, and points out that they are the last before the EU enlarges to the east.

Accusing incumbent President Leonid Kuchma of corruption, intimidation of opponents and attacks on press freedom, the paper says Mr Kuchma certainly feels more at ease with Mr Putin than with western leaders".

The elections dominate the pages of the Ukrainian papers.

"For the first time ever, Communists did not win" runs the headline of the mass-circulation Fakty I Kommentarii newspaper.

"The aggressive campaign, the constant ultimatums from foreign officials and the rebukes of certain homespun politicians about the undemocratic nature of this election," were unable to affect the voters' choice the paper says.

The Ukrayina Moloda comments on certain polling stations being "overcrowded with out-of-towners brought in to support certain candidates".

Russian papers are quick to comment on the pro- and anti-Russia factor behind the results.

According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda, "Russia won the Ukrainian elections, but this victory may be its last."

It says the elections were fought between Leonid Kuchma's supporters who want closer relations with Russia, and his opponents who want Ukraine to join Europe independently, and not be tied to Russia.

The official Rossiyskaya Gazeta sees a three-way geopolitical split in Ukraine as a result of the election.

"Politicians are speaking of an early federalisation of the country. Western Ukraine - to the west of the River Dnieper - will come under the influence of the right-wingers and the US, the area to the east of the Dnieper will come 'under Russia', while Crimea will come 'under Turkey'," the paper says.

Electoral malpractices

The leading Russian daily Izvestiya notes a striking similarity between Russian and Ukrainian electoral malpractices.

"Absolutely all the political tricks which have brought success for Russian politicians over the years were employed in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections. But the Ukrainians, being creative people, have perfected them and put them into 'mass production'."

In loving Elizabeth, Britain loves... its steadfast attachment to good customs

Novyye Izvestiya - Russia

It says in one constituency voters had several registration cards, and voted "wherever they could".

The Ukrainians also drew on the "St Petersburg PR school" by cloning popular candidates, says Izvestiya. According to the Ukrainian Central Electoral Committee, in some constituencies two candidates with exactly the same name were registered, and sometimes ballot papers showed as many as four with the same name.

Britain 'orphaned'

The death of the Queen Mother is reported in virtually all Russian papers. For Novyye Izvestiya, "the ranks of the Windsors have thinned out". It says that in loving Elizabeth, the country loved itself - "that dear old England with its steadfast attachment to good customs, its innate sense of respect for the country's history and its slightly comic piety towards tradition... "

Rossiyskaya Gazeta is concerned, Britain has been "orphaned". It goes on to say that the Queen Mother was "the personification of the high sense of civic duty inherent in the British aristocracy".