Images of the bloodied face of Silvio Berlusconi, attacked during a rally in Milan, grace front pages all over Europe today. Milan daily Il Giornale has used the occasion to launch an all-out attack against the opposition, guilty of having inspired this dreadful deed against its owner. "The anti-Cavaliere hate front has borne its first fruit", froths Alessandro Sallusti, adding darkly that “Violence against Berlusconi is not coincidential. There’s been a strategy plotted by newspapers, political bureaus and irresponsible TV programmes". La Repubblica, however, traditionally one of the prime-minister’s fiercest critics, along with most of the opposition, has expressed sympathy. "Friends and foes…must express solidarity with the premier. Berlusconi's right to his ideas and policies coincides with our right to criticize him. This freedom is called democracy: let's defend it".
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.