European press review

Many front pages today carry the face from Baghdad that not long ago inspired so much fear. The French press notes a tide of feeling against the 35-hour working week, while the Russian papers savour their players' impact at Wimbledon.

Greeks had a word for it

France's Liberation thinks it impossible for Saddam Hussein's trial in Baghdad to "provide all the guarantees that law-based states ensure for defendants in their courts".

While judges in law-based states act in the name of the people, those in Baghdad, the paper says, "were appointed by a non-elected government put in place by a foreign occupier".

Saddam is not wrong to describe the proceedings against him as theatre Liberation

"So Saddam Hussein is not wrong to describe the proceedings against him as 'theatre'." On the other hand, it says, the Ancient Greeks saw tragic theatre as "a form of catharsis, a way of exorcizing the city's demons".

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says Saddam Hussein's appearance before an Iraqi judge must have been a gratifying sight for a great many people.

"Saddam is in the dock, and this is a source of satisfaction for the millions of people in Iraq, and in neighbouring Iran and Kuwait too, who suffered under his cruel regime."

Austria's Die Presse says the Iraqi leadership should appoint foreign experts in international criminal law to give the trial greater credibility.

"For much too long, the country lived under a dictatorship which had never heard of the expression 'a fair trial'."

Russia's Nezavisimaya Gazeta says compared to war crimes tribunals "from Nuremberg through to Sierra Leone", the Baghdad court stands alone in "not being an independent international judicial body".

Saddam will be put on show again if the political situation in the United States so requires Kommersant

"Furthermore, analysts have expressed doubts about whether Iraqi judges are sufficiently competent and able to conduct such a complex trial," it says.

Russia's Kommersant suggests the proceedings in Baghdad may have less to do with justice than with electioneering on another continent.

"Although the trial will probably start only next year, Saddam will be put on show again if the political situation in the United States so requires."

"There will be a number of preliminary hearings in the next few months, hearings which will be completely pointless from the juridical point of view. They will have nothing to do with international law, but with the laws of conducting an election campaign."

'Non' to 35-hour week

France's Le Monde reports that Finance Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has launched "a thunderous onslaught" on the 35-hour working week introduced by the previous Socialist government of Lionel Jospin.

The paper quotes Mr Sarkozy as telling a Paris convention of businesses that the shorter week "makes no economic sense".

The shorter working week makes no economic sense Nicolas Sarkozy in Le Monde

The time and the place chosen by the minister for his outburst were no coincidence, the paper believes, because he was addressing company bosses who saw the previous government's policy as an "authoritarian" imposition.

It points out that Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, whose speech closed the convention, said the French should be able to work longer hours if they wanted to.

Mr Raffarin paid a brief visit to Berlin on Thursday, and France's Le Figaro points out that Germany too is speeding up the return to the 40-hour working week. Parliament there has voted for "drastic cuts" in unemployment subsidies, it says.

France however wants to see the question of the 35-hour week "resolved by means of negotiations between the two sides of industry", it adds.

Waking up Wimbledon

In a tennis tournament with "no surprises, everything predictable", Russia's Trud says "two charming Russian girls have managed to really shake up the yawning spectators".

Her bewitching smile and poise has the audience enraptured Trud

"The main upset was 17-year-old Maria Sharapova... Her game, the way she plays the court, and most of all her bewitching smile and poise has the audience enraptured."

"The second sensation of this year's Wimbledon is Russian-born, 16-year-old French girl Tatiana Golovina (or Golovin, as she writes it in the French way). Slim as the stem of a flower, the blond with the face of an angel moves elegantly about the court, but has a powerful stroke."

Rossiyskaya Gazeta complains "the changeable English weather mixed up all the organisers' cards and forced the schedule to be rearranged."

"But Masha (Sharapova) did not flinch and, winning two major matches in two days, silenced sceptics who opined that at 17 you can't play two games at the limit of your capabilities without proper rest. And not just play, but win brilliantly."

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