THE BIG STORY today in the German papers is the Wall Street Journal letter from eight European countries who declare their differences with the French and the Germans with respect to possible war with Iraq. The eight countries apparently didn't even send the letter to Berlin and Paris ahead of time. Read Oxblog's coverage, with links, here.

Berliner Zeitung says that the "Iraq conflict divides Europe," and commentary in the paper (Schellenberger and Dahms, "The End of Symbolic Unity") notes that the intiative for the letter seems to have come from Spain. Schellenberger and Dahms claim that the developments show that Germany is in danger of "total isolation": "An EU-official is quoted as saying that Germany broke a basic rule of diplomacy, namely: Exclude no options." Another Berliner Zeitung editorial from Uwe Vorkoetter notes that Blair and Schroeder are to blame for the open split in Europe, even though the WSJ letter basically announced the obvious. But the paper saves its harshest words for Schroeder: in attempting to make foreign policy on the campaign trail, and in not offering a real alternative to American policy, Schroeder has made himself diplomatically irrelevant. The other papers echo this critcism (except for taz, see below), and most note that the opposition CDU/CSU have picked up on it as well..

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung prints the letter, and Christian Werneke's commentary echoes Vorkoetter's critique of Schroeder's foreign-policy-on-the-hustings approach, but criticizes all the European leaders for being unable to find a common ground between "cheap populism and dear duty to the alliance with America," especially given opinion polls that seem to show European reluctance toward a "high-tech war" with Iraq.

taz says "New Europe Makes Schroeder and Chirac Look Old," but then seems to blame the (evil) WSJ for the whole affair.

Berlin's Tagesspiegel reprints the text from the Handelsblatt. The Tagesspiegel notes Schroeder's attempts to put a good face on the division ("Germany Does Not See Itself As Isolated"), but at the end of a piece on the fallout from the letter ("Foreign Friends") also quotes a CDU politician who expects that other European countries will join the original eight by this weekend.

No one seems to think that this foreign policy meltdown will get Schroeder to change his tune (except, perhaps, the ever-cynical taz).