“How much does an immigrant cost?” That was the question officially put to the Dutch government this past 22 July by Geert Wilders’ right-wing party (the PVV, Party for Freedom). On Thursday, 10 September, the government hazarded a reply: “We don’t keep accounts on the economic value of human beings,” integration minister Eberhard Van der Laan explained to the Dutch daily Trouw, declining to answer the question for fear the xenophobes would use the figures as an argument for deporting Muslims. Even if the other parties find the PVV’s queries “ignoble and reprehensible”, the PVV is entitled, they feel, to a more precise answer from the government. So the minister says he is now prepared to tally up the effects of immigration policy, but not to calculate the “cost” of individuals. For the PVV, this false answer is proof positive that the taxpayer is forced to pay the price of mass immigration in euros and cents.
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.