Do you drink? Smoke? Got haemorrhoids? When was your last period? Each and every one of the 1500 assistants to members of the European Parliament has to answer all these questions, reports the Frankfurter Rundschau. That’s the medical vetting procedure since last summer, now that they are officially employed by the European Parliament and not by their MEP any more. The urine and blood samples, x-rays and electrocardiogram – that’s all fair enough, but the prying questionnaire is beyond the pale, bridles the German daily, wondering what the point is of knowing whether a parliamentary assistant has had any of 40 different diseases, whether there is a history of hypertension, cancer or mental illness in the family, whether they have ever consulted a neurologist, psychiatrist or psychotherapist (and if so, the reason for the consultation, name and address of the specialist in question).
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.