Gazeta Wyborcza, 2 July 2010
“It’s neck and neck,” headlines Gazeta Wyborcza, with the two rivals in the second round of Poland’s presidential elections having more or less equal chances of winning. The liberal daily sums up the choice voters are facing on 4 July. A vote for Bronisław Komorowski of the ruling Civic Platform party is a vote for a “boring but stable and responsible” Poland. Jarosław Kaczyński of the Law and Justice party (PiS) represents a “centralised and omnipotent” state. “The country’s future is in its citizens’ hands today,” writes Gazeta. “As you make your bed, so you must lie in it.”
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.
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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.