“Abortion becomes election issue after court ruling,” headlines the Irish Times, following the 16 December judgement by the European Court of Human Rights that the Irish state failed to implement existing rights to lawful abortion. Under the Irish constitution, the unborn foetus has an equal right to life as the mother, with abortion a recourse only where the mother’s life is at risk. The Dublin daily notes that, according to the court, “the State violated the rights of a woman with cancer who was unable to establish whether she qualified for a lawful abortion here.” The highly emotive issue of abortion in Ireland’s predominantly Catholic society has “come back to haunt the political parties in the run-up to the 2011 general election campaign,” observes the Irish Times leader, castigating the “political cowardice” of successive governments reluctant to propose clear legislation on the matter.
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.