Spanish media reaction to Ireland's rejection of the Nice Treaty has ranged from outright hostility from Europhiles to qualified sympathy from its slightly Eurosceptical right.
The centre-left El Pais concluded the introduction to its front-page story yesterday thus: "(This) means that 76,017 votes are blocking the future of hundreds of millions of Europeans." Its editorial on the same day called for a reform of the EU's procedures "so that it will be impossible for one state to paralyse an initiative by rejecting it. Otherwise, an EU of 27 or more members will be ungovernable".
ABC, a paper which supports traditional Spanish nationalism and the Partido Popular government of Mr Jose Maria Aznar, argued that the referendum showed the Prime Minister had been right to fight for Spain's right to continued EU funding.
"Ireland, the country which never protests" against Brussels, says the paper, has shown there is more to the EU than the Franco-German axis, and that the sensibilities of all countries have to be taken into account. Other European reaction:
La Repubblica (Italy) - "Poor Europe, to have received a stab in the back from its favourite son. The Irish wound, the referendum No to the Nice treaty, will not be fatal for eastern enlargement, but it bleeds, it hurts and it will only heal slowly. The more Europe's ambition grows, the more clearer are its limits."
Suddeutsche Zeitung (Germany) - "Europe is trembling. The Irish have made the continent aware of the power of a small nation. Fears around Ireland give a bitter foretaste of what problems the EU has ahead of it with 27 members. In its current constitution, each small state can hold back the large Union. The holy rule of unanimity protects individual states - and particularly the small ones - from being deprived of their rights by a majority outside the borders of their country. But it also opens a door behind which an abyss lurks." Le Monde (France) - "The Irish warning demands a change of tack. The European project is clear. But it has not become a matter for the citizens. It is neither thrilling nor persuasive because its political expression appears ever more confusing and weak."
Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland) - "The Irish, who have so much in common with us, stand in the way of our common Europe. We believe that they did not really mean it and we hope it will be temporary. But the Irish referendum was a lesson in democracy for all of Europe . . . It is a failure of the Irish government, who did not explain what the treaty was all about."
Politiken (Denmark) - "From a European point of view, the Danish disease has spread to Ireland. The disease is not about being Eurosceptic or against this or that EU reform . . . No, the Danish disease lies in holding a referendum about an issue so obviously inappropriate for a referendum."
Liberation (France) - "The chances for a second referendum are good, as long as the Government in Dublin is prepared to make good this embarrassing mistake. It is obvious that the Irish Government did not prepare for this referendum at all."