"Papa in jail, Berlusconi defeated", headlines La Repubblica. On Wednesday 20 July the lower house of the Italian parliament authorised the arrest of Alfonso Papa, at the heart of yet another scandal for the Silvio Berlusconi. Papa, MP for the ruling PDL party and a former judge, is accused of being part of a network suspected of using illegally obtained information to help individuals, including a senior PDL official, avoid judicial investigation. Berlusconi had tried to rally his majority to save him, but the Northern League announced that it would vote for the arrest, sparking the premier's anger. In the same day, the upper house voted against the arrest of an opposition senator accused of bribery. "The League had never let the premier down on justice before. The moribund Berlusconi-Bossi government is no more", comments La Repubblica, stating that by autumn early elections or a unity coalition will have ended this instability: "Italy, under the fire of international speculation, cannot afford it".
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.