Next month will be particularly grim, reports Frankfurter Rundschau, whose front page features four downward-pointing red arrows under the headline "Outlook for May." According to the daily, "the month will be an ordeal for four reasons: May festivities will yet again pose a problem for police, the countries of the eurozone will remain in crisis, oil from a sunken oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico will continue to spread, and, to cap it all, the weather will be wet and cold." At the same time there is one bright star on the horizon: "a comeback on the job market." Between March and April, the number of unemployed fell by 68,000 and the country's 30 largest companies are expecting to post a 30 to 40 per cent increase in earnings this year. However, this is not likely to have much impact on salaries, which have hardly increased at all. "As it stands, it remains to be seen what effect the Greek crisis will have on German industry," the paper says, although a "weaker euro would be of benefit to German exports."
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.