Monday's European papers see the French regional election result as a protest vote against President Jacques Chirac's government. There is a mixed reaction to the choice of a new leader for Germany's governing Social Democratic Party. Meanwhile other papers ask whether terrorism can really influence European voters.

Vote of no confidence

French papers agree Sunday's regional elections were a setback for the centre-right government, with left-wing parties overtaking it by 6 per cent plus a strong result for Jean-Marie Le Pen's far right National Front.

"Right punished," reads a headline in the Paris daily Le Figaro.

The bet on a single party of the right that was to reshape France's political geography.. has been lost Liberation

It describes the vote in this first round as a "serious warning shot across the bows" for President Jacques Chirac's UMP party, saying the left is the overall winner.

"Protest vote against the right in the regional elections," echoes a headline in Le Monde.

It describes the ballot as a verdict on President Jacques Chirac's record mid-way through his mandate and wonders what became of his pledge of May 2002 - after his dramatic second-round election victory over Le Pen - to breathe life into the Republic.

"Rather than living, it is struggling along," the paper says. "Challenged by fundamentalism, undermined by populism... it seems more than ever to provoke indifference, scepticism or rejection among citizens."

Liberation sees the vote as a blow for the right's hopes of unity.

"The bet on a single party of the right that was to reshape France's political geography and stifle dissent has been lost," it says.

Above all, the paper sees the result as a defeat for Jean-Pierre Raffarin, whose supposed ability to speak the language of ordinary French people failed to halt the party's decline.

"As prime minister, he is doomed," it says, predicting Chirac will sacrifice him to show he understood the message from voters, and replace him with Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Swiss daily Le Temps welcomes the result and wonders if the French are rediscovering a taste for politics.

"Good news at last," it proclaims in an editorial, describing the 3 per cent rise in turnout since the last such ballot as "significant".

"The widespread, palpable discontent with the policies conducted by the government has been expressed unequivocally," the paper says.

New face, old ideas?

Several German papers comment on Sunday's election of Franz Muentefering to succeed Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as leader of the governing Social Democratic Party, or SPD.

The SPD is far removed from finding its way - for the time being it is not making any progress Berliner Zeitung

The Berliner Zeitung says Mr Muentefering will find it difficult to more than simply hold together a party riven by "self-doubt" over a series of unpopular social and economic reforms.

It describes the new chairman, who was elected by 95 per cent of delegates at the party meeting, as "a comrade, a mate, a real Social Democrat".

However the SPD "is far removed from finding its way - for the time being it is not making any progress," the paper warns.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung though believes Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's speech at the party conference suggests it is too early to write the SPD off.

"This is because Schroeder, on the day he was voted out, delivered his best speech as party leader."

It believes the chancellor's decision to resign from the leadership was right because, "internal debates had increasingly been fought out as public wars".

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the election result shows that the party is relieved to have a leader who seems to be close to the rank and file.

But it warns that Franz Muentefering is "not a political visionary".

"He hasn't made any programmatic contribution so far - this post is still vacant in the SPD," it says.

Austria's Der Standard comments on the new chairman's age.

"The fact that with Muentefering a 64-year old has become the person on whom hopes are pinned reveals the succession problems of a party which has failed to promote competent young politicians," the paper says.

It adds that he stands for a different tone but no new ideas, and that time will tell whether voters wouldn't have preferred "a change in policy".

Bombs and ballots

Madrid's El Pais says the future government of Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero will need all its political and diplomatic skills to keep the pledge on withdrawing troops from Iraq.

If we look at the situation from the terrorists' viewpoint, the circumstances are just right for an attack in Italy too Panorama

It notes that even US Democratic candidate John Kerry has joined what it calls a "fierce campaign" to keep Spanish troops in Iraq.

But it describes American claims that Spain has "surrendered" to Al-Qaeda as an insult to a country which has suffered the Madrid massacre and Etta's long history of killing.

"Iraq is a nightmare created by Bush's reckless policy, which Aznar supported against the views of the Spanish people," the paper says.

What happened in Spain could also befall other countries involved in Iraq - in particular Italy, says the Milan weekly Panorama.

It notes that the Italian left, too, opposes a military presence in Iraq and the government is also accused of subservience to the US.

"If we look at the situation from the terrorists' viewpoint, the circumstances are just right for an attack in Italy too," it says.

The magazine urges Italy to both remain united against terrorism and honour the pledge to its US allies, with or without the United Nations.

The Barcelona daily El Periodico notes the "irritation" of EU justice and interior ministers on Friday over Spain's slow, inaccurate provision of details on the Madrid bombings.

"As long as international terrorism and organised crime know no boundaries, to insist on confining security to the narrow limits of states only means more insecurity," it warns in its Sunday edition.

The paper calls for supra-state police bodies that make it possible to move, as it puts it, "from coordination to integration".

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