“A milestone victory,” headlines To Ethnos, following the 14 November second round of local and municipal elections in Greece. Despite an exceptionally low turn-out of 46%, Prime Minister George Papandreou’s ruling Pan Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) won eight of the country’s 13 regions and control of the city of Athens. “In spite of the ongoing crisis, and the imposition of painful austerity measures, the people of Greece have given a renewed vote of confidence to the ruling party,’ affirms the left-wing daily, reminding readers that the PM had turned the local elections into a referendum on austerity policy. 14 November was also marked by the arrival of a “troika” mission of representatives of the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF, who will evaluate the application of austerity measures and either grant or withhold approval for the release of the third tranche of a 110 billion loan to the Greek state.
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.