"Why the king wants Reynders to intercede!" headlines La Libre Belgique. In the wake of the failure of a string of mediators, conciliators and and arbitrators, Albert II has decided to see if the Francophone liberals – who have until now been excluded from negotiations on the formation of a government – can break the deadlock. Starting on 2 February, their leader Didier Reynders will head up a mission to see if there is sufficient “political will for an agreement on the country’s institutions” – an issue which has proved to be the main obstacle in previous attempts to reach a negotiated settlement. "We have come to a point where it is time to give the liberal parties a turn, and if they do not reach agreement, there will be no other option but to call for elections, which may be marked by a further increase in the Flemish nationalist vote," writes La Libre in an editorial entitled “Good Luck.”
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.