“A fireside decision for Europe,” headlines De Volkskrant. The sale of Draka, a Dutch wire and cable manufacturer, to Italy’s Prysmian, and not to the Chinese bidder Xinmao, was decided by Fentener van Vlissingen, one of the wealthiest families in the Netherlands, which holds a 48.5% stake in the company. This is a strategic decision for Europe, stresses the Dutch daily, as Draka is one of the world leaders in a high-tech industry which is of vital importance to the telecommunications, defence and aeronautics sectors, and which includes fibre-optic cables. Xinmao had outbid Prysmian, fuelling European fear that the Chinese would obtain high-tech know-how and patents. The European Commission must now decide whether the deal abides by European competition rules.
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.