“The Greens have outstripped the Christian Democrats” in the regional election in the northern German state or Land of Bremen, headlines German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung next to a photograph of Karoline Linnert, the triumphant Green Party candidate. While the Social Democrats (SPD), who have held power in the region for the past 66 years, won the election with 38.3% of the vote, the Green Party took second place with 22.6%. This has attracted attention because it is the first time that, in this smallest Land in the nation, the Greens manage to nudge ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) which garnered 20.6% of the vote. This was the first German regional ballot held after the voting age was lowered to 16 but this did not increase voter participation. With only a 53.6% turnout, it was the lowest in the history of the Land. “In order to attract [voters that young] a change in outlook was needed and that wasn’t the case in Bremen,” according to the daily Tagesspiegel.
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.