European press review

In Wednesday's European press, French newspapers are split over President Jacques Chirac's speech on economic and social policy, the German press weighs response to recent neo-Nazi threats and looks ahead to the forthcoming European summit in Berlin, while a Finnish daily praises the "maturity" of Swedish and Estonian voters in the weekend's euro referendums.

Mr Chirac's 'incurable optimism'

The French Le Figaro welcomes Mr Chirac's speech in Burgundy on Tuesday as "resolutely optimistic".

The paper reports that in his address, Mr Chirac reaffirmed support for his prime minister's policies despite "a summer marked by the heat wave crisis and by the government's difficulties in responding to it".

"France has no grounds for self-doubt," the paper quotes Mr Chirac as saying. "We have plenty of reasons to believe in ourselves."

Obviously it would take more than this to shake the incurable optimism of Mr Chirac, who has decided to view reality through rose-tinted spectacles Nouvel Observateur

Mr Chirac pledged that Paris would "honour all its European commitments", the paper further reports, adding that the president listed the reforms already carried out by the government in an attempt to prove that France was "in the process of regaining its economic status".

But the Nouvel Observateur is unimpressed.

Mr Chirac's speech suggests that "all is for the best in the best of all possible countries", the daily says.

The president may have been trying "to rally energies and inspire hope", the paper concedes, "but when words stray so far from the reality.. the message is not very likely to be believed".

As much as we would like to believe the president's optimistic speech, the daily adds, "unemployment is dangerously approaching the 10% mark, factory closures and job losses have become a daily occurrence, and the budget and social welfare deficits have reached record levels".

"Obviously it would take more than this to shake the incurable optimism of Mr Chirac, who has decided to view reality through rose-tinted spectacles," the paper concludes.

German neo-Nazi debate

The discovery of a suspected plot to bomb a Munich Jewish centre and the subsequent arrest of a group of suspects elicit comment in German dailies.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung accuses Interior Minister Otto Schily of exploiting the arrest for party political purposes.

Schily and Beckstein make their assessment of the threat posed by right-wing radicals based on the political interests of the day Der Tagesspiegel

The paper suggests that the Social Democratic minister - who has spoken of rising political terrorism by right-wing extremists - was wrong to suggest that the group also targeted his party's top candidate in Bavarian elections, Franz Maget.

"Schily gives the impression that he does not knows the basics of domestic security - that the existence of a threat should not lead to public discussions but to discreet actions," the daily says.

Der Tagesspiegel dismisses the idea that the issue could have any electoral significance for Mr Maget.

The paper warns both Mr Schily and his Bavarian counterpart Guenther Beckstein against exploiting the issue.

"You could gain the impression that Schily and Beckstein make their assessment of the threat posed by right-wing radicals based on the political interests of the day. This is absurd and dangerous, even in the context of election campaigns," the paper warns.

Still in Germany, Die Tageszeitung shows a sign of hope that a joint European stand on Iraq might be forged at a summit in Berlin on Saturday.

"The announcement of the meeting in Berlin shows that fundamental points of disagreement have been resolved and the United States will largely have its way," the paper says.

It predicts that the compromise will include a little bit more influence for the United Nations and more money and military support for the US, which will remain the dominant player.

'Mature if unwise'

In Finland, Swedish-language daily Helsinki Hufvudstadsbladet praises the voters' "maturity" in neighbouring Sweden and Estonia.

Although Swedes voted "in the most difficult of circumstances", in the wake of the murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, they still "chose to follow their convictions despite the bloody deed and reacted in an attractively mature way, even if the decision itself was unwise," the paper says.

"Sweden would have been wise to join EMU," the paper adds. "Instead, the Swedes chose to turn inwards rather than outwards to an increasingly integrated Europe," the daily laments.

The paper adds that the "the decision is regrettable" for Finnish industry in particular, predicting that currency uncertainty will restrict investment in the long term.

In contrast, the Estonians, whose attitude towards the European Union has always been characterised by "sound scepticism", it notes, on Sunday "decided to rise above everyday life and think of the future instead".

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