European press review

Today's Austrian press looks at the latest career move of one of the country's most famous migrants, while French and German papers examine the ups and downs of Chancellor Schroeder's political career, and the Czech press picks over a row between President Vaclav Klaus and the Czech Senate.

And five years after the implementation of Germany's spelling reform, a German paper awards the scheme null points for achievement.

Brain and brawn?

The Austrian paper Die Presse defends Hollywood film star Arnold Schwarzenegger's right to run for governor of California but doubts whether he is suitable for the job.

"It's not just professors who are entitled to become politicians," the paper asserts.

Mr Schwarzenegger will need muscle power above his neck, too Die Presse, Austria

It describes the actor as a "nice Austrian", "sympathetic" and "successful", but wonders whether he has the qualities needed to deal with California's deficit and its troubled energy sector.

"Does Schwarzenegger have the understanding necessary to resolve these problems?" the paper asks.

It argues that his statements to date have amounted to "pure populism", with their emphasis on placing "people" above "special interests".

It is difficult to imagine a terminator with an old man's face Der Standard, Austria

Mr Schwarzenegger "will need muscle power above his neck, too", the paper points out, "if he is to grasp that... there aren't just 'people' but many individuals who do have special interests which politicians must, or ought to, balance".

Another Austrian paper, Der Standard, says that taking up politics is a clever career move for an actor who, in the paper's view, will soon be too old to take part in action films.

"It is difficult to imagine a terminator with an old man's face and suffering from gout," the paper points out.

It wishes "Arnie" success if elected, but warns of the difficulties he is likely to encounter.

"The task he would have to face up to," the paper says, "would truly be as tough as steel, and the extra hard variety of the latest generation at that."

A man for one season?

A commentary in the French L'Express sees a seasonal pattern in the roller-coaster of the German chancellor's political fortunes.

He has regained the upper hand with a series of daring reforms L'Express, France

Just before his summer break three years ago, it recalls, Gerhard Schroeder introduced a tax reform "now regarded", as the paper puts it, "as one of the main landmarks of his first legislature".

Last year, it continues, "with his poll ratings at their lowest", it was in August that Mr Schroeder "started the recovery that saw him re-elected" the following month.

"And this summer," the paper notes, "everyone agrees that he has regained the upper hand... by launching a series of daring reforms."

"Suddenly German morale is rising," it says. "Employers seem to have regained their confidence, and although the economic machine has yet to restart, a growing number of experts say it should not be long now.

One of the lasting effects of the Elbe flood is Schroeder's government Berliner Zeitung, Germany

"In short," the paper concludes, "after one month of depressed paralysis, something is stirring in Germany at last."

Germany's Berliner Zeitung sees Gerhard Schroeder's response to last summer's floods in the east of the country as the decisive factor in his re-election.

"One of the lasting effects of the Elbe flood is Schroeder's government," the paper says in a commentary.

It argues that the opposition candidate, Edmund Stoiber, misjudged the public mood when he said that compensation for flood damage should be financed through an increase in state debt rather than taxes.

According to the paper, solidarity shown during the flood may have helped east and west Germany grow together.

"Suddenly, in the summer of 2002, when the need became obvious, the people were prepared to help, personally and even in the form of solidarity which today is the most important, even though it is the dullest, the solidarity of paying one's taxes," it says.

Locked horns

In the Czech Republic, a commentary in Lidove noviny sees the row between President Vaclav Klaus and the Senate over appointments to the country's Constitutional Court as "a sign of the narrow-mindedness of Czech politics".

"The statements made on both sides," it says, "are both undignified and silly" and "have pushed the dispute to a point from which it is hard to see a way out of an embarrassing situation".

The president has chosen to fight, and the senators will take up the gauntlet Mlada fronta dnes, Czech Republic

Another commentator in the same daily says out that the Senate, by rejecting four of the nine names proposed by the head of state, "has turned Klaus's nominees into a kind of alternative target" for its attacks on the president.

Hospodarske noviny says that there should be no surprise at some of the rejections in view of what the paper calls the "tarnished reputation" of those concerned. But "the verbal exchanges between the president and the Senate", it warns, "may grow into a protracted and fierce battle" which would be "undignified for the country's two highest institutions".

Mlada fronta dnes says that the Senate "wants to assert its influence, as guaranteed by the Constitution", but that "the reasons given by the senators for their rejections are neither politically-motivated nor narrow-minded". On the other hand, what the paper calls "the offensive statements" emanating from the president's office "have really irritated the Senate".

"The president has chosen to fight, and the senators will take up the gauntlet", it believes.

Spelling anarchy

An article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says that, five years into Germany's spelling reform, "the handling of orthography and punctuation... can be characterised as chaotic to anarchistic".

Over half the population found the rules unclear Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany

The reform, it says, "has failed in its primary goal of unifying the literary language in German-speaking European countries".

Although 80 per cent of all newly published books are printed with the new spelling, the paper notes, only 22 per cent of Germans use the new rules, and a recent survey "showed that over half the population found the rules unclear".

The education authorities dare not suggest revoking the reform, the paper believes, "because they fear being accused of wasting government funds".

Forty years ago, it recalls, even biology homework was marked for spelling or punctuation mistakes. But since then, it notes, "language laxity went so far" in some states "that spelling mistakes were no longer regarded as such even in German essays".

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.