Slovakia to wait before bailing out Greece, headlines Sme. Prime minister Robert Fico is calling on Greece to show it can cut its national debt before unfreezing the Slovak share of the EU/IMF €110 billion bailout package. “Given the political situation, it’s nearly impossible to reach an agreement in parliament,” reports the Bratislava daily, what with Slovak general elections coming up on 12 June. Unless its European partners tighten the screws, the roughly €800 million cheque (1% of its GDP) Slovakia is supposed to give Greece won’t be signed till the new government gets voted into office on 12 June. Slovakia was the last country to join the euro club in 2009, which adds fuel to the populist slogan “we’re to bail out a richer country!”, notes Sme.
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.