With the German presidential election coming up fast on 30 June, Angela Merkel is going to have a tough time plugging her conservative candidate Christian Wulff against a popular left-wing opponent. Several officials in her own coalition, as well as much of the press, have already come out in favour of Joachim Gauck, the candidate put forward by the Social Democrats and the Greens. Gauck, who served for ten years as Federal Commissioner for the Stasi archives, in charge of uncovering the crimes committed by the East German secret police, would be "the better president", headlines Der Spiegel. In Germany, where outstanding politicians from the east are few and far between, Gauck has got everything going for him. Born in 1940, this former Protestant pastor was one of the revolutionaries who played a part in ousting the Communist regime. Elected to the East German parliament in 1990, he does not belong to any party and has a reputation for being a strong, independent intellectual – and rather stylish to boot. In throwing all her weight behind Wulff, a conservative politician through and through and a rival within her own party, Angela Merkel's chancellorship would be severely dented if Gauck were to win the day.
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.