European press review
The release of four French nationals from
Guantanamo Bay is the major story in France's national dailies. Elsewhere
Spain's papers welcome a mission with Morocco and Austria's choice for EU
commissioner comes under fire.
Welcome home?
"What is to be done with the Frenchmen from
Guantanamo?" Le Figaro asks in its main headline.
Four of seven French nationals seized by US
forces in Afghanistan were handed over and flown back to France, where they were
immediately taken into custody.
Le Figaro says their release marks "the beginning
of a long judicial process" as France awaits to see if they will be charged or
released by its own legal system.
They were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people, but this does not constitute a crime
They were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong people, but this does not constitute a crime
Liberation
"The fate of the men will - finally - depend on
justice. An anti-terrorist justice system, yes, but one which obeys the rules of
law and founds its decisions on tangible facts," says an editorial in Le
Monde.
"If they are acquitted, it will be an new blow
for the credibility of the 'war on terror' being fought by President Bush in
contempt of the law - national and international - and morality".
Liberation hails the detainees' return with the
headline "Return to the Law Zone".
The least these men deserve is to be presumed
innocent after their two-year detention without charge, it comments.
"They were in the wrong place, at the wrong time,
with the wrong people - Bin Laden's foreign legion - but this does not
constitute a crime."
"Bush and his team have set aside the law and
lowered the standard of personal freedoms," and France must therefore "refuse to
imitate him" by offering these men the "most scrupulous legal
guarantees".
The fact that these men may follow an ideology
which would "happily throttle these guarantees" is "completely irrelevant", the
paper concludes.
Le Monde carries a cartoon showing the freed
prisoners being shepherded off a "Guantanamo Airlines" plane by a very
disgruntled Uncle Sam and led into the arms of a puzzled French judge - who one
of the former inmates mistakes for an imam.
Another Spanish surprise
Madrid's El Pais welcomes the news that Spain and
Morocco are to send a joint reconstruction force to Haiti.
Coming just two years after the crisis over the
tiny Mediterranean island of Perejil - "the lowest point in recent relations
between Morocco and Spain" - the governments of the two countries "have
surprised everyone", the paper says.
Relations with our southern neighbour have not always been easy
Relations with our southern neighbour have not always been easy
La Razon
"Few initiatives could illustrate like this the
turn-around in foreign policy made by [Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis
Rodriguez] Zapatero's government. It increases trust between both
countries."
Mr Zapatero has demonstrated "a determined will"
to improve relations with Morocco unlike his predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, who
treated ties with the north African state "with exceptional clumsiness and
arrogance", the paper says.
"Relations with our southern neighbour have not
always been easy", comments La Razon, "partly because the king of Morocco
maintained as an inalienable principle a series of claims of sovereignty" over
the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla.
Old vs New
Hungary's Nepszabadsag assesses the visit by US
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who praised Hungary's efforts in the US-led war
on terror.
"In the eyes of Bush and co there is indeed 'a
new Europe', which, with the Bulgarians, Hungarians, Poles and Baltic people,
fortunately compensates for the 'old Europe' - the French, Germans, etc."
Vienna in whirl over EU choice
Austria's Die Presse doubts the nomination of
Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner as their new EU commissioner is the best
choice for the country.
There are few political traps set by her enemies which she has managed to avoid
There are few political traps set by her enemies which she has managed to avoid
Die Presse
Conservative Ms Ferrero-Waldner, who personified
Vienna's charm offensive against international sanctions over Joerg Haider in
2000, lost April's presidential election to Social Democrat Heinz Fischer.
The paper questions her political
instincts.
"In domestic politics there are few political
traps set by her enemies, including members of her own party, which she has
managed to avoid."
And the paper doubts she will be able to win over
a "Eurosceptic public" to the cause of the European Union.
Austria's Der Standard slams Chancellor Wolfgang
Schuessel for declaring he hadn't even thought about who should succeed Ms
Ferrero-Waldner at the Foreign Ministry.
"He must think we are all idiots to believe him,"
it says.
The European press review is compiled by BBC
Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early
printed editions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/2/hi/europe/3931909.stm
Frenchmen freed from Guantanamo dominates in France while Spain's press welcomes a new mission with Morocco
