European press review

Thursday's papers discuss Gerhard Schroeder's "forceful" defence of his welfare reforms and the initial share offering by the internet search company, Google, the first by a major technology firm since the dotcom bubble burst four years ago.

Developments at the Athens Olympics continue to draw comment, in particular the withdrawl of two Greek sprinters who missed a drugs test and the Russian women's gymnastics team who were "only" placed in third position.

Schroeder's welfare battle

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is the subject of editorials again today but this time it is his politics rather than his private life that draws comment.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mr Schroeder was in "top form" on Wednesday when he defended his government's welfare reforms at his first press conference after the summer break.

The paper describes the chancellor's performance as "forceful" and "confident".

Schroeder repeated that the Germans have not understood the complexity of what is at stake Le Monde

"After last week's emergency operation, in which further adjustments were made... to the labour market reform, Schroeder's main aim was to show steadfastness".

But this is a "high-risk game", the paper believes, because it is not clear whether the results promised by the chancellor will arrive on time to help him win the next parliamentary elections.

France's Le Monde says that the German chancellor, "faced with a growing wave of social protests and a drop in his Social Democratic Party's opinion poll ratings", expressed "absolute confidence" in his reforms programme.

It notes his contention that Germany is "on course for stable growth" and that "the signs of an economic recovery" are all present.

"But the social component of the message was harder to put across," the paper believes.

The Party of Democratic Socialism has managed to take advantage of the growing protest against the government's reform policies Sueddeutsche Zeitung

Mr Schroeder "repeated once again that the Germans have not properly understood the complexity of what is at stake in his reforms".

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung argues that the "unprecedented" rise in the opinion poll ratings of the ex-Communist Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) is partly a consequence of the unpopularity of Mr Schroeder's reform programme.

"The PDS has skilfully managed to take advantage of the growing protest against the government's reform policies."

The party is also benefiting from the fact that it has always presented itself as an advocate of East Germans, the paper adds.

But the paper warns that its current popularity may not necessarily be translated into long-term electoral success.

"The PDS is a protest and mood-dependent party which the East Germans are not currently judging against reality but mainly by its slogans."

The fundamental need for Google

With the world's most popular internet search engine, Google, very much in the news as it prepares to float on the stock market, France's Liberation pays it the partially tongue-in-cheek tribute of wondering if "I google, therefore I am" will become a philosophical principle of the 21st century.

A search engine does not make us less stupid Liberation

"The search engine caters for the fundamental human need to increase knowledge," the paper says.

It provides "a compass" to those "shipwrecked in an ocean of facts and figures".

"The treasures we seek are often buried in the mud of utmost idiocy".

Although useful in our daily lives, an internet search engine "does not make us less stupid", the paper argues.

Its usefulness as an instrument "will always depend on the quality of the users' brains".

Olympic lows...

The case of the Greek sprinters Konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou, who withdrew from the Olympic Games after they missed a drugs test, points to a wider problem, Germany's Der Tagesspiegel believes.

"Sport, including the Olympics, remains riddled with fraud."

This realization, though regrettable, is nothing new, it adds, but has been "hammered into peoples' minds once again" by the case of the two Greek athletes.

The presumption of guilt must be used with moderation to avoid excesses Le Temps

The Germans, it declares, are setting a good example in the field of doping policy. "On the other hand, they are winning fewer medals in Athens."

This "exemplary case", the Swiss Le Temps observes, "reveals the far-reaching character of the 'zero tolerance' line promoted by IOC chairman Jacques Rogge".

So far-reaching, the paper continues, that "it makes athletes concerned so afraid of being banned from the Games that they choose to withdraw without even having tested positive".

"The presumption of guilt" introduced by the sports authorities "to catch the cheaters" may be "an additional trump card in the fight against the use of illicit substances", but it must be used "with moderation to avoid excesses", the paper counsels.

... and Russian anguish

In Russia, concern about the Olympics is focused less on performance-enhancing drugs than what several Moscow papers see as biased and performance-deprecating judges.

A Rossiyskaya Gazeta commentary notes that the Russian women's gymnastics team "only got third place", and "not without a little help from the judges".

"This is the worst result for our team in the history of the Olympics," it laments.

Our girls are wonderful just the same Novyye Izvestiya

But, in its opinion, the bronze medal was not the fault of the Russian team: "Our gymnasts had real chances of a higher placing, but, as it turned out, the judges had other plans."

"Our girls kept their end up well," an Izvestiya commentary says, "and the only way they were inferior to their competitors was in how much the judges liked them."

"The judges, who had been down on our team even in the preliminaries," it continues, "maintained their attitude through the main event."

"But our girls are wonderful just the same."

A commentary in Novyye Izvestiya also chooses to conclude on a positive note: "By Beijing 2008 we will have our old unbeatable team back."

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