"Economy in state of shock," headlines Handelsblatt, two days after the Alliance '90/Greens victory in the Baden-Württemberg state election. Right up until polling day, entrepreneurs in the German Land, which is a national leader in nuclear power generation but also in the car and machine tools industries, campaigned on behalf of conservative candidates. Their fear that a change in the state government would bring about an end to corporate friendly polices was justified, remarks the economic daily, which explains that the impact of the "Green wave" will not be limited to Baden-Württemberg: "The new German Leitkultur [dominant culture] is staunchly anti-nuclear, marked by pacifism and mistrustful of large-scale projects. Major energy companies can expect to see a significant devaluation of their capital." At the same time, the national railway company Deutsche Bahn has announced the provisional suspension of work on the Stuttgart 21 project.
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.