Frankfurter Rundschau, 19 July 2010
"Merkel and the problem statesmen," headlines Frankfurter Rundschau on the 18 July resignation of the Mayor of Hamburg, Ole von Beust. "Merkel has now lost six state governors in just one year,” explains the daily, which notes that “the phenomenon of jumping ship is now approaching critical mass in the Christian Democratic Union." Von Beust’s resignation will also undermine the state parliament’s conservative-Green coalition, which was supposed to serve as a model for the nationwide renewal of the CDU.
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.