“The ODS are paying the price for their godfathers,” headlines Hospodářské noviny in the aftermath of the Czech local and senate elections on 15 and 16 October. The Civic Democratic Party conservatives have lost city hall in Prague, known as a nest of “political mafiosi” for a number of scandals unearthed in recent months. Zdeněk Tůma, ex-governor of the national bank, will probably be the new mayor of the capital. But the big winners at the polls are the social democrats, who have swept up several of the nation’s big cities and could clinch a senate majority in the second ballot on 24 October. “The blue [i.e. conservative] government is now up against orange [i.e. social democrat] regions, maybe an orange senate, too, and orange big city mayors,” recaps the business daily. Four months after its victory in the general elections, the conservative coalition might be unable to implement its reforms, particularly plans to overhaul the pension system.
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.