Whilst in Belgium the appointment of a new archbishop of Brussels is going down like a ton of bricks, over in the Czech Republic the Vatican is taking its time in appointing a successor to the much-loved cardinal Miroslav Vlk at the head of the Prague archdiocese – so much so that the native press is growing restless. In Brussels, Le Soir describes Monsignor André-Mutien Léonard, appointed by Benedict XVI on 18 January, as the “most well known and least esteemed” of the candidates by dint of his reactionary stance on euthanasia, abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research, divorce and contraception. According to an exclusive poll conducted by Le Soir, a mere 17% of Belgian Catholics think he’d make a good archbishop. "It won’t be easy finding a new Vlk,” headlines Mladá fronta DNES in Prague, given Mgr Vlk’s heavy legacy: the Czech Republic is in fact “one of the most atheistic countries in Europe”, in which “the relation between Church and state remains unresolved, owing especially to the problems involved in returning Church property that was confiscated by the Communists”.
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.