"Italy, another painful judgement", headlines Corriere della Sera after Moody's downgraded Italy’s debt rating from AA2 to A2, with a "negative outlook" that could lead to further cuts. The agency's decision, justified by "the country's vulnerability to financial shocks", comes after Standard&Poor's downgrading in September and puts pressure on the other major agency, Fitch, to do the same.
"Why do markets have Italy in their sights and not Spain", whose real economy is feebler, asks Corriere's leader. "Because we are not serious nor credible. Nobody wants to invest in Italy. Our image is shattered" after the government's inability to adopt budget measures required by the ECB. Economy minister Giulio Tremonti, locked in a long running battle with premier Silvio Berlusconi, commented that Spain is being spared because its shaky government has set a date for snap elections. Corriere shares this view: "this newspaper asked Berlusconi to do the same as Zapatero: announce he won't run again, call elections, avoid dragging down the entire centre-right. No answer".
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.