"There is one word we ought to ban from debate on the issue of retirement at sixty years of age: and that word is taboo," which is used to portray "the defenders of social progress as a primitive tribe in thrall to an ancient idol," remarks Libération. At a time when the government is negotiating a pension reform package with France's unions, the newspaper focuses on a recent interview with the Minister for Labour, who insists that "something must be done" about the legal retirement age in the country, which has been set at age 60 since 1983. The left-wing daily is convinced that any increase in retirement age "would have an immediate impact on the lives of workers and low-wage earners, who still have a shorter life expectancy than their more fortunate fellow citizens." At the same time, Libération's conservative rival Le Figaro warns that France's retirement age is now the lowest in Europe: with French workers retiring a full seven years earlier than their counterparts in Sweden and Germany who retire at age 67.
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.