De Standaard, 18 February 2011
“Bad for our image”, regrets De Standaard, quoting the caretaker prime minister Yves Leterme on the day after Belgium beat the world record for going the longest time without a government. According to the Belgian newspaper “the world enjoyed the surrealistic way Belgium celebrated the world record,” with images of the ‘French fries revolution’, half-naked demonstrators and big parties broadcast around the world. “The climax was around midnight, when the unofficial floating trophy for ‘government forming’ was handed over by a delegation from Iraq, the previous record-holder”, adds the Standaard. Belgium has now been trying to form a government for 250 days and there is little sign of the deaany time soon.
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.