European press review

The election of a successor for President Vaclav Havel preoccupies today's Czech papers.

As the Franco-German engine revs up, a German paper argues that there is merit in the proposal for two presidents to jointly head the EU.

And a Budapest paper protests against the use of a Hungarian military base by the US to train Iraqi opposition fighters.

Selecting a president

The aftermath of last week's failure to elect a new Czech president to succeed Vaclav Havel occupies the Prague daily Pravo.

"Following the first election debacle, the quest for a new Czech president is reminiscent of a thriller that could easily turn into a soap opera," the paper says.

It focuses on the emergence of former Prime Minister Milos Zeman as a candidate of the ruling Social Democratic Party for the second attempt to elect a president.

Zeman's supporters should join the Communists and leave social democracy to Social Democrats

Hospodarske Noviny

The daily dislikes Mr Zeman's emergence, arguing that what it perceived as his effort to frustrate the first election has "created a deep rift in his party, which could now have a boomerang effect".

But the former premier is now calling for party unity, the paper notes tartly, and saying that this is the only way of defeating Vaclav Klaus, his mighty opponent.

Scathing criticism of the Zeman candidacy can found in a commentary in Hospodarske Noviny.

"Zeman represents the politics of the hard fist, gross words and behind-the-stage agreements that does not honour promises and visions," it says.

We will appreciate [Vaclav Havel's] qualities in the future and sense the vacuum he leaves behind

Lidove Noviny

"He symbolises the era of dubious state orders, attempts at politically expedient changes to the constitution, suppression of opponents..."

"Zeman's supporters should join the Communists and leave social democracy to Social Democrats," the piece concludes .

Lidove Noviny expresses despondency over the immediate prospects for Czech politics.

"The shadows cast by the unfortunate start of the election of [Vaclav Havel's] successor," it says, "indicates that we will appreciate his stature and qualities in the future, and sense the vacuum he leaves behind."

Franco-German engine speeds up

Last week's Franco-German proposal for an European Union with two presidents has merit and should not be dismissed out of hand, argues the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau.

The paper concedes that President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder may have engaged in horse trading, but the proposal "does contain more sense and reasoning than the process might imply", it says.

When Germany and France get along, Europe moves forward; when they don't, Europe stops

President Jacques Chirac in Le Figaro

The joint functioning of the two posts - a president of the EU Commission and of the Council of Ministers - could be smoothed by means of an "EU foreign minister... the principle of majority decisions in the common foreign policy or an expansion of the powers of the EU parliament".

The arrangement, while still cumbersome and in need of improvement, would represent a valuable step in the EU's evolution, the paper says.

Focusing less on such technical issues, President Jacques Chirac says, in an interview with the Parisian daily Le Figaro, that France and Germany must be a "driving force" in re-establishing the European project.

To mark the 40th anniversary of the bilateral Elysee Treaty of cooperation, Chirac announces closer ties between the countries' parliaments and initiatives to foster the learning of each other's languages in schools.

"When Germany and France get along, Europe moves forward; when they don't, Europe stops," he asserts bluntly.

Hungary being used?

Iraq and the US crop up today in the Budapest daily Nepszabadsag, although in a local context.

The paper is alarmed by the US army training thousands of Iraqi opposition members at the Taszar military base in southern Hungary.

The unusual lack of publicity on the real nature of the Taszar mission forces journalists to use their imagination

Nepszabadsag

Under the headline "International curriculum for teaching genocide" it asks what exactly the Iraqis will be taught at Taszar.

The paper describes the stated aim of training interpreters at the strictly guarded base as "so ridiculous" that it cannot be believed.

"The unusual lack of publicity on the real nature of the Taszar mission forces journalists to use their imagination", the paper says.

It cites the "infamous" - and now renamed - School of the Americas (SOA) in the US, alleged to have trained 63,000 South Americans, including a dozen dictators and hundreds of suspected mass murderers and torturers.

The US does not want to train the Iraqis at the former SOA because, the paper believes, "it is afraid of Islamic terrorists". Also, the US wants to evade the attention of human rights groups.

The US, the paper says, "seems to have found an ideal terrain in Hungary", because Hungarians do not live in fear of al-Qaeda and the human rights question "has not even occurred to them".

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.