Leading with the headline "Toxic Elections," the Jurnal de Chisinau (JDC) reports that early general elections to be held in the Republic of Moldova on 29 July have been fixed in advance. Citing liberal sources, the daily explains that "the ballot papers have been chemically treated, so that stamps indicating a preference for some candidates will disappear within two hours." Chemists consulted by JDC confirm that the production of ballot papers of this kind is indeed possible. One of them warns that the same method was used by the Soviets to prove the non-existence of Jesus Christ. "They showed children an image of Jesus, which would appear and disappear in the course of an oxidation-reduction reaction." The communist party in power rejects this hypothesis, and emphasizes the fact that "the ballot papers were printed in Israel, and are above suspicion."
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.