"What cost us was being cheap”. Following the scandal of dioxin found in eggs and meat in Germany, Der Freitag focuses on "rotten food" [junk food]. Admittedly, the Germans have never spent less for food, i.e. 11 percent of their budgets, much less than the French or the Italians. "The Germans eat in a fairly democratic manner," says the Berlin weekly. "They do not transform their eating habits into outward shows of wealth. That's why you can see fur coats at the Aldi checkout if the champagne is good." However, Der Freitag notes, the consumer who picks out the cheapest products cannot be blamed for provoking "the mixing of fatty acids meant for paper production into animal feed." The system in question here: the big supermarket chains squeezing farmers to produce ever cheaper food. A phenomenon, says the newspaper, supported by the EU and its subsidies for intensive agriculture in Western Europe.
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.