“A stroke too far,” headlines the Irish Independent. In a dramatic 24 hours which saw 6 of his cabinet ministers resign, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has reluctantly announced a general election for 11 March. As closest allies deserted him, Cowen’s attempt to fill the vacant ministries “backfired spectacularly” as junior coalition partners the Greens threatened to collapse the government if a poll date was not set, the Dublin daily reports. Widely blamed for Ireland’s economic meltdown and humiliating EU/IMF bailout, Cowen and his Fianna Fail party, which has run the Irish state for much of its 89 year history, face electoral wipe-out. Summing up the national mood, an Irish Examiner columnist laments “one of the most stunningly shambolic days in Irish political history which saw Mr Cowen trash the dignity of the office of Taoiseach and leave his fag-butt Cabinet half-empty as the economic crisis worsens further.”
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.