European press review Russian papers voice varying degrees of concern over renewed tension between Moscow and Tbilisi over Georgia's two breakaway regions. Some German papers are not keen on the latest economic advice dispensed to the government by the OECD. And France's leading daily makes an impassioned plea to Zinedine Zidane not to quit the national football team. Holidays with a difference The president of ex-Soviet Georgia, Mikhail Saakashvili, has ordered his forces to fire on Russian cruise ships heading for the Black Sea resorts of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, on the grounds that the Kremlin supports the separatists. One can well imagine what America would do if a congressman were to be fired upon in a neighbouring country, and not by bandits, either, but by members of the security forces Krasnaya Zvesda Moscow's Izvestiya points out that the Georgian president issued his warning personally to Russian holidaymakers in a live broadcast. But "Russian tourists are not worried by Saakashvili's threats", it says, because "they travel to the resorts overland, not by sea". The paper notes that Abkhazia and the other breakaway region of South Ossetia "are convinced" that Georgia has a new policy of settling such disputes by force. "Having promised his people that he would get South Ossetia and Abkhazia back within a year," it says, "Saakashvili... cannot afford to slacken the pace". "They've started firing not only on ordinary Russian citizens living in South Ossetia, but on high-ranking representatives of our country," says a slightly more alarmed Krasnaya Zvesda, in connection with an incident when a convoy carrying a Russian parliamentary delegation came under fire near the village of Sarabuk. In a reference to Mr Saakashvili's current visit to the United States, the paper adds: "One can well imagine what America... would do if a congressman were to be fired upon in a neighbouring country, and not by bandits, either, but by members of the security forces." "It is not hard to guess," it continues, "where American ships, aircraft and marines would promptly turn up". As for Russia, the paper notes, it is "behaving with restraint". The problem is that "such a manifestation of patience can be taken for weakness in the Caucasus." The German patient Germany's Die Tageszeitung criticizes some of the recommendations for the German economy contained in a report published on Thursday by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, the OECD. Germany is doing better, but it is still convalescing Le Temps The report suggested that the government should carry out more radical labour market reforms than those planned so far. "But all this would, initially, lead to further cuts in people's income and would thus in the short term cause a slowdown in the economy," the paper argues. "Not to mention the fact that additional, harsher reforms would be difficult to carry through politically," it adds. In neighbouring Switzerland, Geneva's Le Temps takes a more upbeat view of the OECD'S document. "Germany is doing better, but it is still convalescing," the paper says. The good news contained in the report, the paper explains, is that German industry is "in good health" and unemployment should start falling from 2005 onwards. Back in Germany, the Frankfurter Rundschau is indignant over a government proposal which would require the long-term unemployed to use their own assets before qualifying for unemployment benefit. It says that those who lay their hands on the potential inheritance of the children of the unemployed "instead of taxing the rich or forcing bosses to disclose their earnings" have jettisoned any left-wing credentials they may have had. Advantage Chirac Paris's Le Figaro records a victory for President Jacques Chirac in the long-running war of attrition with his finance minister and avowed rival for the presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy. Mr Sarkozy, the paper says, "had made it known from the outset" that he hoped to include the Ministry of Defence in his drive to tighten next year's budget and cut expenditure. "But the minister has just lost his battle," it adds. Already on Bastille Day, 14 July, the paper recalls, President Chirac "declared that there was no question of touching" the military procurement programme and the 15.6 billion euros earmarked for "investment" in defence. And the prime minister's office has since announced that next year's defence budget will amount to 1.5 billion euros more than that for 2004, it adds. The Hungarian commissioner Budapest's Nepszabadsag calls the controversy over the appointment of Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs as Hungary's representative in the European Commission "an April Fool's Joke in the middle of summer". We are indeed a country much given to jokes Nepszabadsag "The new commissioners," the paper believes, "have immeasurably stronger" links with their governments than their predecessors, and "nobody has any doubts that the German, French and British commissioners "will bat", as the paper puts it, "for their own countries' interests". "Only in Hungary does this pose a problem", the paper regrets. It points out that the opposition party Fidesz has rejected Mr Kovacs' appointment on the grounds that he is so committed to the Budapest government that cooperating with him "would be virtually impossible". "We are indeed a country much given to jokes," the paper concludes. ZZ must stay The leading French daily Le Monde devotes a heart-felt editorial to the announcement by national and world football star Zinedine Zidane that he is considering his future with the French national team. Zidane is a role model for such young people Le Monde "Zidane must carry on playing for France," the paper urges. "Whether he likes it or not," the paper argues, "Zinedine Zidane, the son of Algerian immigrants", has become "a symbol" of multiracial France. With what it calls France's "integration engine" currently experiencing "mechanical trouble", only the world of sport continues to offer young people of all ethnic backgrounds "the hope of reaching the heights." "Zidane is a role model for such young people," the paper stresses, "the living proof that everything is possible. His mission is not over yet". The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.
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