Two informateurs (who confirm that the politicians elected are ready to form a government), one préformateur (appointed by the king to explore the feasibility of forming of a government), two mediators, a clarifier, a conciliator... 261 days after the parliamentary elections and following the successive failures of all persons charged with forming a government, King Albert II has resolved to appoint a new negotiator. This time, it is Wouter Beke who has got an “indefinite” lease: the young president (born in 1974) of the Flemish Christian Democrats should work out the draft of an institutional agreement between the nine major parties, says La Libre Belgique. According to the Brussels daily, the Francophones expect him to set out a “scholarly synthesis of Flemish positions” to bring them all back to the bargaining tables. A “gamble”, highlights La Libre in its editorial, for which Woutertje, the young “white Béké” (‘he who comes back for more’) has everything to gain from this adventure “in the big leagues” –“provided that he takes it on with enthusiasm, serious and creativity.”
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.