They are like chalk and cheese, but once again Václav Klaus and Václav Havel share headlines in the Czech press. While the President continues to block ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, his predecessor has announced that he is to make a film. "I'll have the last word," runs Lidové Noviny on its front page, explaining that Klaus plans be the last leader in Europe to sign the troubled text despite its having been approved by parliament in May. Further on, Lidové acclaims "Director Havel", as the playwright cum politician gets ready to adapt his latest play Odcházení (Leaving) for the screen. His wife, the actress Dagmar Havlová will play the leading role in a poetically absurd drama, which deals with the question of freedom and the human void. A return "to the beginning of his career, when he dreamed of becoming a director," the Czech daily remarks.
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.