“The long goodbye,” headlines the Irish Independent. In an ironic allusion to the film noir classic about the hedonistic excesses of Hollywood, the Dublin daily reports that Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s days of presiding over the Irish economic wreck are “numbered.” Twenty-fours after he confirmed that the ex-Celtic Tiger was seeking an EU/IMF rescue, Cowen, flanked by ministers at a 22 November press conference announced elections for the new year, but that first he intended to “publish the four-year budgetary plan, pass the Budget with its €6bn in cuts and taxes and complete the negotiations with the IMF and the EU on the bailout.” Following news that junior coalition partners the Green Party plan to pull out of his government, Cowen now faces a backbencher revolt. “I predict murder at the parliamentary party tomorrow. There'll be war there. I know there will," a member of his party said.
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.