When legislators in Baghdad met to confirm a new government on Saturday, the violent road to democracy in Iraq that started with the US invasion three years ago came to a formal end. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki promised to unify the nation after months of sectarian chaos, and leaders around the world welcomed the new "unity government" as a step toward stability. For legislators it must have been a relief after the long negotiations -- Iraqis elected their parliament, after all, in December.

But the day was marked by suicide bombings around Iraq and a walkout by Sunnis in the parliament chamber (to protest slim Sunni representation). The cabinet also wasn't complete -- three crucial ministers hadn't been named. Observers said it was a symptom of deep divisions in Iraq that defense, interior, and national security jobs were still vacant, since those ministries need strong leaders to control Iraq's security forces and quell the Sunni uprising.

German newspapers on Monday can't decide if the news is good. The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sounds optimistic -- for the first time the nation has, not an interim or makeshift leadership, but "a democratic government which deserves the name." The editors admit it "speaks volumes" that three important ministers are missing, because "the dreams of a unified and functioning democratic state of Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds will be scattered if no one can solve the security question." The paper also wonders if legislators will get over the "group egotism" that led to the gruelling five-month negotiation in Baghdad. Loyalty to the idea of "Iraq" may prove to be too weak for a functioning union, the paper writes, "but at least the government can get to work."

The Financial Times Deutschland agrees. The lack of key ministers "may sound like a joke, given the security situation in Iraq," and yes, it took a long time for the government to form, but the presence of Sunnis in the cabinet is already an important step forward, writes the paper. "Daily life is still marked by violence and terror. On the other hand there's now a political process." The process may seem to be moving forward "in a parallel world," meaning the fortified Green Zone, but the editors argue there's been real progress, from an interim government to a draft constitution to the new cabinet. "Now it's a matter of keeping the democratic machinery in motion," writes the paper.

Center-right daily Die Welt, however, is a lot more pessimistic. Its editors think Prime Minister al-Maliki has gotten off to a weak start. He wanted to name "non-partisan ministers" to the crucial posts, the paper writes, to break the spiral of violence and allow the US to draw down its troops. "How far Maliki has succeeded is clear from his appointments to key ministries: Not at all." The paper doesn't believe non-partisan or "neutral" politicians exist in Iraq, except in the circle of former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi -- "but he and his party do not want to participate" in the new government. So the US probably probably won't pull troops anytime soon. "An American strategic success in Iraq, in other words a functioning, democratic, pro-western government," writes the paper, "is simply not shaping up."

- Michael Scott Moore, 12:30 p.m. CET

Who Exactly is Safe in Germany?

The furor over Germany's image in advance of the World Cup roiled straight through the weekend after an assault in Berlin on a Turkish-born politician seemed to confirm warnings last week that non-white tourists might want to avoid parts of the country. Giyasettin Sayan, a 56-year-old member of Berlin's regional assembly, was hospitalized after two men attacked him with a bottle on Friday in his own ward of Lichtenberg. The incident seemed to confirm a controversial warning made only two days before by Uwe-Karsten Heye, a former spokesman for Gerhard Schröder, that World Cup tourists should be warned away from "small and mid-sized towns in Brandenburg," where neo-Nazi thugs were active. This time, tellingly, the incident was no provincial freakshow: It happened in the tolerant, cosmopolitan capital.

"Police say this wasn't a targeted attack on Giyasettin Sayan -- and that's not comforting at all," writes the center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung. Sayan represents the neo-Communist Left Party in Berlin, and Lichtenberg has a known skinhead problem: If he wasn't a target, the paper implies, then anyone can get hurt. "In Berlin, in eastern Germany, and even in western Germany it's dangerous to walk around at night in the wrong neighborhood with the wrong skin color, beard, or length of hair," write the editors. Uwe-Karsten Heye's warnings last week -- which upset some conservative German politicians and soccer authorities -- "weren't just yanked out of thin air."