Months into La Repubblica's war of attrition against Silvio Berlusconi, the premier's once indestructible mask of eternal joie de vivre is beginning to show some cracks. The latest blow – the publication of audio recordings made by top-range call-girl Patrizia D'Addario during her alleged encounter with the Italian PM – has been painful : approval ratings have dropped, Christian commentators have cast their eyes heavenwards and the foreign press is ranting, with Daniel Finkelstein of the London Times comparing his sins to those of Chairman Mao. The Cavaliere has since opted for a change in strategy, dropping indefensible pleas of innocence and confessing "I am no saint, you all understood that". This accompanied by a wink and a grin from his seemingly inexhaustible supply of cheerful facial expressions.
Few are amused, however. "The man is naked – and the Prime-Minister too", chastizes Il Manifesto columnist Ida Dominijanni, who laughs at Russian daily Pravda rushing to the defence of Vladimir Putin's friend with epithets such as a "true man" and "gentle knight". "For Berlusconi, an image slip is a political one, because for him politics is image. He has turned democracy into a reality show and citizenship into an audience. Now that this circle is broken things will never come back again", she concludes.
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.