The dramatic breakthrough of Europe-Ecologie, led by Daniel Cohn-Bendit was one of the highlights of the European elections in France. In celebration of his rapid progress, the front page of left-wing daily Libération announced the genesis of what it dubbed the “Dany boom." With 16% of the vote (14 seats in Parliament), Cohn-Bendit’s party has become the third-ranked French political force behind the UMP (President Sarkozy’s party) and on a par with the PS (Socialist Party). A one-time leader of the 1968 protests and veteran of the Parliament in Strasbourg, who has been an MEP since 1994, “Dany the Red” as he was known in his student days has become the new “Green Giant.” The daily attributed the success of his campaign to its “fundamentally European approach, based on a social project,” and Cohn-Bendit’s “extensive experience of the Strasbourg Parliament.”
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.