Is German politics a puppet theatre? Cicero looks into " the republic’s most secret sector" – the world of spindoctors, or communication advisors. The magazine details how those it dubs “the puppet-masters of Berlin" work for politicians and companies looking for a "good image". The energy giant Eon, for example, has hired the PRGS agency to lay the groundwork to have the life span of German nuclear power plants extended, emphasising that "nuclear and renewable energies are bound together" to "meet the emotional needs of the population."
The sector attracts many political veterans,” explains Cicero, such as a Green MP hired by the nuclear lobby and a former Minister of Health advocating the cause of big pharma. And the press? "Toothless, tamed," confirms a spindoctor. Newspapers need so many ready-made stories that agencies are struggling to meet the demand. “Given that a newspaper’s budget is little more than what I spend on an evening out with clients in a fancy bar, I’m not surprised to see them resort to recycling my colleagues' PR scribblings," he confirms.
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.