European press review

In today's press a German daily looks at Britain's role in Franco-German relations and Czech and Danish newspapers take their governments to task for being too friendly towards the US.

Elsewhere, religion and industry are in the spotlight, with British mosques accused of preaching violence, while French factory closures are criticised and a Swedish paper calls for the retention of nuclear power.

France-Germany

A day before Germany and France mark the 40th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty which formalised their post-war reconciliation, one German newspaper looks back at Britain's role in that achievement.

"The Franco-German motor had a British ignition key," says Hamburg's Die Welt.

Referring to a speech delivered by the British wartime leader Winston Churchill in Switzerland in 1946, the paper says: "Britain can definitely be considered the midwife of the French-German reconciliation after World War II."

Churchill had stated that "the first step to recreating the European family must be a partnership between France and Germany", the paper recalls.

That partnership was so successful, the paper adds, that it is Britain that has often ended up being left behind in matters European.

Pro-war Czechs?

The Czech daily Pravo asks: "Does the government actually want to join Europe?"

It says the Social Democratic government and its prime minister have landed themselves in an embarrassing situation.

An American Colt in one hand while the other strokes Picasso's dove.

Pravo

On the one hand they are ploughing millions into the campaign to promote Czech membership of the EU and yet on the other hand they fail to heed the "increasingly loud voice of reason" coming from the European Union against the looming war in Iraq.

They even ignored EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's call for the march to war to be halted, the paper says.

"Surprisingly, this does not interest our government. It unanimously approved our participation in the American-Czech intervention corps. And all this is taking place at the time when even Tony Blair opted for - and this hardly surprisingly - a third way," the daily points out.

It adds that the government appears to be "holding an American Colt in one hand while the other hand strokes Picasso's dove".

Guantanamo Dane

Copenhagen daily Information takes the Danish Government to task for its behaviour towards a Danish citizen who is now being held captive by the US at its Guantanamo base in Cuba for the second successive year.

The paper says both the Danish Government and the opposition have "unfortunately bought" the US view that international law does not apply in the war on terrorism and that the prisoners at the base are not covered by the Geneva Convention.

The circumstances of the Dane's case are "wreathed in a thick veil of smoke", with the Danish Government officially holding its cards close to its chest in order not to interfere with the investigation into al-Qaeda.

However, the paper says "the real explanation is rather that the Danish Government does not want to annoy the US. On that altar it is apparently willing to sacrifice both a Danish citizen's fate and if necessary also the principles of protecting the individual which are laid down in international law."

'Imams of hate'

Belgium's La Libre Belgique questions Britain's tolerance of what it calls "imams of hate" after a British raid on the Finsbury Mosque in London.

It says British society is right to have made freedom of expression one of its cornerstones. "But this freedom ends when it calls for the physical elimination of an opponent," it says.

"Why should an Islamist be arrested for having collected some explosives in his cellar if the person who set fire to his mind continues to preach violence, and this in the house of Allah?" it asks.

"The wars in Yugoslavia and Rwanda have shown the decisive influence of ideologues on the triggering of hostilities," it argues.

Denial community

Hungary's Nepszava follows the fate of Imre Kertesz, who recently won Hungary's first Nobel Prize for Literature for his semi-autobiographical novel Fateless, a Holocaust story told by a 15-year-old Jewish boy from Hungary.

The commentary says the latest turn in his story is that a "fellow Hungarian" has filed a complaint against Kertesz on suspicion of "incitement against a community".

This prompts the commentator to question the meaning of the word "community".

"Indeed, there is a community in Hungary... which does not consider the Holocaust a crime," the commentator says.

Referring to ordinary anti-Semitic people who feature in the book, the commentary concludes: "The death camps could not have been built without them. And they still live among us."

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