European press review

The European press is preoccupied with issues stemming from the G8 Evian summit. Some papers deal with strikes in France and Austria, and a Hungarian newspaper examines the peculiarities of local football hooliganism.

Summit policing slammed

Switzerland's Le Temps is critical of police operations in Geneva during demonstrations against the G8 summit.

The paper says that on Sunday only the deployment of German police officers prevented a full night of rioting.

"If the authorities don't want to call on the Germans each time a danger appears, they have to provide their police forces with an intervention concept which is adapted to new threats," it warns.

Strikes in France...

Under the headline "No newspapers on Tuesday at news-stands", the internet edition of France's Liberation informs its readers that "like all national and most regional newspapers", Liberation won't be published today as a result of strikes against the government's pensions reform project.

An editorial published in the internet edition of France's Le Figaro says trade unions are wrong to oppose the reform plan.

"They are the ones who are mainly to blame for the current crisis," the paper says, accusing the trade unions of having "no strategy".

Trade unions have no strategy

Le Figaro

It suggests that the small size of French trade unions may make them more radical.

"French trade unions are so small that they have to make a lot of noise to have the feeling that they exist," it says.

According to the paper, the government's only mistake may have been that it has been overly confident.

"If its decision to postpone its project of decentralization, which lacks clarity, is no doubt right, there is every reason for it to persist on pensions," it says.

... and in Austria

A headline in Vienna's Die Presse says Austria will come to a "standstill" today as a result of strikes against the government's pensions reform plan.

The paper believes the Austrian Trade Union Confederation, OeGB, has made a serious mistake by not accepting concessions made by Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and his governing coalition.

"The OeGB has thus missed its exit from total confrontation," it warns.

According to the paper, the Trade Union Confederation is already finding it extremely difficult to justify its continued opposition.

"OeGB officials are the only people left who understand why there are still significant protests despite the coalition's concessions," it says.

Vienna's Der Standard, on the other hand, says protests against pensions reform in Austria and elsewhere are understandable.

The strikes in France and Austria are a revolt by the man in the street against technocracy

Der Standard

"This protest movement against the inevitable is fostered by the inability of those in government to communicate the basic problem and to make the reforms fair," the paper says.

It also observes that people who are set to lose substantial amounts of money are not interested in complicated analyses about pensions funding shortfalls.

"The strikes in France and Austria are a revolt by the man in the street against technocracy: a success for democracy even if the experts are proved right," it concludes.

Royal plane for Spanish troops

A week after the plane crash which killed 62 Spanish peacekeeping troops returning from Afghanistan, military flights are still front-page news in the country.

El Mundo reports that "Spanish troops will now travel in the planes used by the king and [Prime Minister Jose Maria] Aznar".

El Pais carries the story that Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo "explains that he has suspended hiring Russian planes in order to 'prevent alarms'".

La Razon has "the military offer the aeroplanes of the king and Aznar for transporting troops abroad".

Barcelona's El Periodico splashes: "This is how the Spanish army travels. Unedited images taken in a plane returning from Iraq". The newspaper publishes pictures which it says show that troops shared the cabin with cargo that was not properly tied down and in a plane with worn-out tyres.

Hungarian football violence

The Hungarian broadsheet Nepszabadsag comments on the violence that ended the football season and expresses grave concern for post-Communist society.

The daily relates that at a championship decider, fans of the losing team invaded the pitch and beat up not just their own players but the opposition coach, police officers and even firefighters.

They also held a Nazi demonstration.

"We have been hearing for days that what happened at the Fradi match on Friday is unprecedented," the daily says. But is it, it asks.

Well, possibly on a football pitch but "not on the streets of Budapest", it concludes.

This country has been viewing violence in a different way to what one would expect from its past

Nepszabadsag

The commentator recalls that last year thousands of protesters blocked a central bridge and brought the city to a standstill demanding a parliamentary election vote recount - something which in the commentator's view is "unknown in the Europe" of democracies.

Then the march protesting against the Iraq war was violently broken up by the other side, then hundreds of peaceful demonstrators supporting the legalisation of soft drugs were set about with fists and kicks by political opponents.

What most frightens the commentator is that the police were nowhere to be found when these events occurred, and that "their absence was legally justifiable".

"It seems," the commentator worries, "that neither the professionals nor the amateurs are aware that this city, and indeed this country has been viewing violence in a different way to what one would expect from its past."

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