For the first time in 22 years, the conservative Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has lost control of Prague. On May 23, the municipal council dismissed Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda and two representatives of his party, while two others resigned.

Svoboda, who was renowned for his pledge to fight corruption in the city, was let down by the centre-right TOP 09 party, with which he had formed a coalition. Is it a “betrayal” by TOP 09, who, with the help of the social democrats and a communist, liquidated a functioning coalition, or is it the result of conflicts within the ODS, wonders Lidové noviny.

The daily remarks that “the affair has also had an impact on the [national] centre-right coalition government.” Prime Minister Petr Nečas has claimed that his partner, vice-president of TOP 09 and Minister of Finance Finances Miroslav Kalousek is responsible for the “Prague crisis”.

At his meeting with the German Chancellor on the occasion of the May 22 European Council, “the Hungarian Prime Minister will have had to contend with a few tense moments”, remarks Népzsabadság.

Is he intending to apologise for affirming that “the Germans have already sent in the cavalry, to be precise in the form of tanks, [which was] not a good idea at the time, and did not work”? wonders the daily.

This was how Orbán responded to Angela Merkel’s remarks on recent legislative changes that have undermined the rule of law and democracy in Hungary. The Chancellor’s exact words were: “We will do everything to encourage a return to the right path, without going as far as to send in the cavalry.” According to diplomatic sources cited by Népzsabadság, Orbán is unlikely to present an apology, “if it is not specifically demanded by the German Chancellor.”

The Greek government has launched a redundancy plan for several thousand civil servants, a measure stipulated by the latest memorandum signed with the IMF-EU-ECB troika.

The first to be shown the door will be those who lost a court appeal when they were laid off by the terms of a previous memorandum signed in 2010. By the end of June, 3,000 people will have their jobs cut, and 12,500 will have been short-listed for redundancy, explains To Ethnos.

The daily adds that under the terms of the government’s agreement with the troika, 150,000 to 200,000 civil servants will be laid off between now and 2015.

The leader of the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union parliamentary group wants to outlaw symbols of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the former communist East Germany, reports Berliner Morgenpost.

Volker Kauder wants to avoid further “provocations”, following a May 9 parade of former soldiers of the National People’s Army (NVA), in which armed men, wearing Stasi and NVA uniforms and carrying flags of the GDR gathered around the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin's Treptow Park.

Kauder’s proposal is supported by liberals in the ruling coalition. The deputy president of the liberal parliamentary group, Martin Lindner, also wants to introduce a law to outlaw symbols of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

Gigi Becali, an MP for the ruling National Liberal Party and owner of the football club Steaua Bucarest, has been definitively found guilty by the High Court of Appeals and Justice, which, on May 20, sentenced him to three years in prison for his part in a corrupt business deal that took place in 1997.

Becali was charged with unlawful profiteering in the deal, which involved the exchange of 30 hectares of land with the Romanian Ministry of Defence.

For România liberă —

Becali is finally having to pay for the greatest ever swindle of the state. […] In the case, which was led by prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate, two other public figures (the minister of defence of the period, and a former chief of general staff) were also sentenced to two years in prison.

The Democratic Party (PD) is preparing a law that would limit public funding to political parties and exclude unconventional organisations like Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement. Grillo reacted angrily to the proposal and called for a boycott of the next election if it is signed into law.

Grillo also called on PD dissidents to support a motion, to be voted Tuesday, that would bar People of Freedom (PDL) leader Silvio Berlusconi from running as a candidate on the grounds that he owns a TV network. If the motion were to pass, it would likely result in the collapse of the PD-PDL coalition government.

According to Corriere della Sera, the coalition government of Enrico Letta could prove even shorter-lived than predicted, and new elections could be called as soon as parties reach a deal on the new electoral law.

A group of UK business leaders have signed a letter to The Independent accusing Eurosceptic politicians of putting “politics before economics” in calling for Britain to withdraw from the EU.

The signatories, including airline and music tycoon Richard Branson, demand Prime Minister David Cameron “strengthen and deepen” involvement in the European single market.

“The letter, which is signed by senior figures including the current and next presidents of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) as well as the chairmen of BT, Deloitte, Lloyds and Centrica, is the first co-ordinated response from the business community to increasing anti-European political rhetoric,” writes the daily.

The Portuguese are not happy with the intervention of the troika in Portugal, according to a survey carried out by Eurosondagem for the European Institute, part of the Law Faculty at Lisbon University, and which will be released on May 20.

Almost half of Portuguese people feel the agreement between the government and the troika should not have been signed, compared to only 12 per cent who back the deal. A total of 82.5 per cent want to renegotiate or terminate the troika agreement.

President Aníbal Cavaco Silva will receive the members of the Council of State – the political body that advises the president – on May 20, for talks about the country’s likely condition once the troika has left Portugal, and for preparations ahead of the European Council meeting due to take place in June.

The movement Que se lixe a troika (Fuck the troika) called a protest today in front of the Presidential palace, to call for Cavaco Silva to "finally assume his position, respect the constitution and dismiss the government, which is ravaging Portuguese life."

Plans to legalise gay marriage must overcome a new hurdle with some MPs seeking to derail the bill by adding an amendment to the existing law allowing gay couples the right to form civil partnerships, to be extended to also include heterosexual couples.

The Marriage Bill, which was approved by MPs when it was first debated in February, will return to the House of Commons for its report stage today after being debated by the UK parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords.

Should the amendment extending civil partnership rights to heterosexual couples be passed, the government claims this would delay the law’s introduction by two years and cost an extra £4bn (€4.7bn).

“At last a French proposition for Europe!” announces Le Monde, which welcomes the new European attitude outlined by the French President during his May 16 statement —

François Hollande’s address to Europeans and Germany at his press conference, finally put an end to the dodging and obstruction of European policy that have marked his tenure since his election. […] In affirming that France should be the "link" between northern and southern Europe, the head of state has given up on the idea of rallying Latin countries to oppose a Germanic Europe.

The daily also argues that in calling for united “economic government” in the Eurozone —

François Hollande is taking Angela Merkel, who proposed a political union a year ago, at her word. At the time, he was critical of an empty proposition. Today he has given it "substance". Taking Germany at its word is the right strategy. At last, France is once again bringing a proposition to the European table. However, it will only be credible if Mr Hollande sets his French house in order.

In Germany, where François Hollande’s remarks have been received with much less enthusiasm, Die Welt points out that the “so-called offensive is mainly composed of measures that were already presented by his predecessor,” whether they be —

… the European economic government that was called for by Sarkozy before the European Parliament in Strasbourg in 2008, or the idea of issuing bonds, which for tactical reasons Hollande is no longer calling Eurobonds, in the hope that the stubborn Germans will one day accept them.

With regard to his address to Germany, Die Welt remarks that Hollande’s attitude consists of “moaning about German austerity not only as a statement of his ideological position, but also as a tactical measure.” For the newspaper —

… in presenting himself as someone who is willing to do battle with the spectre of a Merkel style austerity diktat, he is trying to obtain room for manoeuvre that, in a best case scenario, will enable him to push through unpopular reforms. It follows that Angela Merkel will have to continue to allow him use her as a European punching-ball for some time to come.

The Bundestag committee of inquiry into the National Socialist Underground (NSU) has highlighted what it describes as a “total failure” of German security services.

Tagesspiegel explains that in its final report, due to be presented to the Bundestag in August but released on May 16, the committee deplores “a police and secret service investigation marked by blind prejudice,” and “a massive underestimation of the danger of right-wing extremism by regional and federal authorities which failed to exchange sufficient information.”

Numerous experts, including police trainers, have called for centralised coordination of initiatives to combat right-wing extremists, as well as counselling programmes for those who have left extreme right circles.

French President François Hollande confirmed at a press conference on May 16, that the course set for the second year of his mandate would give priority to economic recovery and employment. For La Tribune, “François Hollande is more social-democratic than ever.”

"François Hollande has made European policy ‘the number one objective‘ for his year II,” notes the business news website, which explains that “this policy will be based on four pillars: a new European governmental authority, a plan to help young people enter the workforce, a European energy community and a step towards budgetary integration.” All of this amounts to —

… a clear affirmation that Germany, in spite of its economic power, does not control the leadership of Europe. In other words, without France, there will be no progress on European integration. Obviously, François Hollande wants to be the man who relaunches Europe...

Conservative Party officials have begun contingency planning in case Nick Clegg, the leader of coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, is unable to stop his party from withdrawing from the government ahead of the end of its term in 2015.

One scenario would see Prime Minister David Cameron leading a minority government but with some limited support from the Lib Dems, explains The Times.

The news comes at the end of a tough week for the coalition, with the mostly pro-European Liberal Democrats at odds with a vocal anti-European element within the Conservatives, as the matter of Britain’s European membership dominated the week’s headlines.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democrat candidate for the chancellor’s office Peer Steinbrück crossed swords in Berlin at a forum on Europe on May 16 over the issue of possible sanctions against Hungary, which has been accused of violating the principles of EU law.

Steinbrück, reports Népszava, raised the question of the exclusion of Hungary from the EU and asked Merkel to exert more pressure on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, both personally and within the framework of the European People’s Party, of which they are both members.

The chancellor voiced her agreement with the European Commission on the need to modify the contested Hungarian legislation and remarked that she preferred persuasion to threats. She also pointed out that she is demanding “changes to laws or constitutional amendments, if they do not comply with EU treaties.”

As part of the public sector reform package presented by the Victor Ponta government, 14,000 civil servants (including 4,000 postal workers and 2,500 energy company employees) will be laid off between now and 2018.

The redundancy plan is one of the measures demanded by the International Monetary Fund in exchange for financial aid, points out România Liberă, which adds that this will “herald the end of the government’s honeymoon with the Romanian people.”

At the demography summit held in Berlin on May 14, Angela Merkel asked her government to facilitate the mobility of workers within the EU.

“Because we will have six million fewer workers in 2025, we should be open to young people who want to come to our country,” said the chancellor.

Germany offers good conditions for immigrants but suffers from a reputation of being a standoffish country, explains Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. German Interior Minister Hans Peter Friedrich is mainly counting on an influx of skilled workers from the countries of southern Europe.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has proposed an “asymmetric deficit distribution” among the country’s regions, asking for "generosity” to allow Catalonia a 2013 deficit level higher than the 0.7 per cent of GDP currently set for each Spanish region.

But Rajoy is now facing a rebellion in his own People’s Party (PP), as leaders of three regions ruled by the PP – Extremadura, Madrid and Aragon, which complied with 2012 deficit targets – condemned the proposal, saying it would amount to “preferential treatment” for Catalonia.

Other PP-controlled regions are also likely to object to the special status granted to Catalonia.

Milan prosecutors announced on May 13 that they are seeking a six year jail sentence and lifelong ban on holding public office for former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi over charges of bribery and underage prostitution.

They believe “there’s no doubt that Karima El Mahroug [the 17-year-old Moroccan girl who Berlusconi claimed was the niece of Hosni Mubarak in order to avoid her being jailed for theft] had sex with Berlusconi.” The politician, who is alleged to have paid Ms El Mahroug more than €4.5m for sex in 2010, said the claims are the product of “lies and hate”. The court is expected to announce its verdict on June 24.

Berlusconi’s supporters staged a demonstration last week against “communist judges” after he lost his appeal against a conviction for tax fraud, which has jeopardised the unity of the coalition government with Democratic Party (PD).

UK Prime Minister David Cameron will take the “highly unusual” step of publishing draft legislation on May 14, committing the government to hold a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU by 2017.

The move comes after the PM came under huge pressure from Conservative MPs to write his January pledge to give the British people a vote on the country’s relationship with the EU into law, after it did not feature in last week’s Queen’s Speech.

The plan was revealed late on Monday on the sidelines of Cameron’s meeting with Barack Obama, in which the US president backed the PM’s efforts to renegotiate Britain’s EU relationship.

It also comes ahead of a parliamentary vote called by Conservative MPs criticising the fact the referendum did not feature in the Queen’s speech.

In the May 12 general election, the conservative Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (Gerb) led by outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, which won 30.1 per cent of the vote, was awarded 98 of the 240 seats in the country’s parliament. The Bulgarian Socialist Party led by Sergei Stanishev obtained 26.1 per cent and was given 86 seats. The two other parties with scores above the 4 per cent threshold are the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (33 seats), which represents the country’s Muslim minority, and the ultra-nationalist Ataka (23 seats).

Barely more than three months after the fall of the government in the wake of a wave of anti-poverty demonstrations, the country has once again been plunged into political deadlock, points out Standart, which remarks that in a situation where none of the parties received enough votes to govern alone and all of the parties have ruled out an alliance with Gerb, “the formation of a new government will be a difficult puzzle."

For its part, the daily Troud wonders about the possibility of "Everyone against the Gerb," a scenario that has already been alluded to by the socialists, but one which would rely on their party forming a coalition with Ataka as well as the Movement of Rights and Freedoms.

In an interview with Népszabadság, Green MEP Rui Tavares, the author of a draft report on fundamental rights in Hungary, which was published on May 2, advocates the establishment of monitoring and alert mechanisms.

The goal, emphasises the daily, is to avoid recourse to the “nuclear weapon” of Article 7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which stipulates that in the event of serious violation of European values, member states may have their voting rights suspended.

Rui Tavares rejects accusations of bias and claims he is “open” to discussion of the draft report, which has been strongly criticised by the Viktor Orbán government and the conservative Hungarian press.

Education Minister Michael Gove and Defence Secretary Philip Hammond have publically stated they would vote to leave the EU, should a referendum be held now, dealing a damaging blow to Prime Minister David Cameron.

These comments follow similar calls for a British withdrawal made last week by senior party figure and former chancellor Nigel Lawson, and contrast with the PM’s EU plan.

“Dozens of Conservative MPs,” reports The Guardian, are preparing to take part in a vote later this week, complaining at the fact that the Queen’s May 8 speech, outlining the government’s planned legal reforms, contained no pledge to hold an in-out poll on Britain’s EU membership.

According to Le Soir, between January and April of this year, the fiscal rulings office registered 1,715 adjustment declarations for money that had hitherto escaped the attention of tax authorities.

According to the Belgian daily, the influx of previously undeclared funds has likely been prompted by “the government’s announcement of an imminent tax amnesty”. The operation, which could take place as soon as July, “will likely be followed by an increase in charges for adjustments.”

For the newspaper, this prospect has led —

large numbers of “sly foxes” to take advantage of the permanent adjustment mechanism, which has been in operation since 2006, to bring back their shekels from tax oblivion.

The Milan court of appeal decided on Wednesday, May 8, to uphold Silvio Berlusconi’s four-year jail sentence and five-year ban on holding public office for his conviction on charges of manipulating television right payments in order to avoid taxes.

The verdict, condemned by Berlusconi’s People of Freedom Party (PDL) as another chapter in the “perennial persecution” against the former prime minister, is not expected to have any real consequences, since the offence expires in 2014 and the case still has to be heard at another level of justice.

Nonetheless, PDL called for a demonstration against “leftist judges” to be held on Saturday, May 11, in Brescia. The court’s decision, along with another trial for underage prostitution that Berlusconi will be facing in the coming weeks, also threaten the fledgling coalition government of PDL and the Democratic party.

The British government’s tax and revenue department has started acting on leaked data about wealthy individuals concealing billions of pounds in secret offshore bank accounts.

Chancellor George Osborne sent a blunt message to the tax evaders and to 200 accountants and advisors working on their behalf: “The message is simple: if you evade tax, we’re coming after you.” The tax department added that "criminal prosecution or significant penalties" would befall those who do not voluntarily disclose their tax irregularities.

The Guardian reports the department’s data on the wealthy tax evaders is the same information the daily accessed in its Offshore Leaks investigation into tax havens, published in March.

A new YouGov poll commissioned by The Times found 42 per cent of respondents want a relationship with Europe based on free trade, while 21 per cent want a complete British withdrawal.

The survey is just the latest sign of the difficulties UK Prime Minister David Cameron faces in winning support for Britain’s continued relationship with the EU, ahead of a referendum on the matter due before 2017. The PM has vowed to negotiate a new deal with Europe.

The poll found that 46 per cent of people questioned said they would elect to leave the EU if there was an in-out referendum now, compared to 35 per cent who would choose to stay.

According to the daily —

Should Mr Cameron fail to negotiate a new relationship with Brussels more akin to a common market, MPs warned that he would find a significant number of his parliamentary party turning against him in his promised referendum.

In line with a deadline set by the European Commission, the Slovenian government is expected to present a package of reforms for the country’s economy and banking system before the end of this week.

The different parties in the ruling centre-left coalition led by Alenka Bratušek met on May 6 to discuss details of the initiative.

According to Večer, the main measure will be an emergency tax on private incomes of more than €600 to be introduced in July, which is expected to net the government €300m per annum.

A second plan to cut public spending is expected before 2014. Slovenia’s difficult financial situation has notably resulted from a crisis in the country’s banking sector.

Life senator Giulio Andreotti died on May 6 in Rome. He was aged 94. A leading member of the Christian Democracy party, which dominated Italian politics from 1946 to 1991, he was seven times elected as the head of government, and 21 times appointed to ministerial office. He was arguably the most noted Italian politician of the second half of the 20th Century.

In the course of his long career, his political ability, his talent for irony, and his capacity to emerge unscathed from scandals earned him several nicknames — including “Beelzebub”, “the Divine” (Il Divo), and “the Fox”, points out Corriere della Sera —

Neither the trials for collusion with the Mafia — in which the statute of limitations was solely responsible for his acquittal on some of the charges — or a power that was characterised by rules, references and players that were light years away from him, were able to break him. In a world that was divided between the West and communism, he appeared eternal. It was “his” world, in which he evolved with the class and cynicism of one who knows everything of its public appearances and its behind-the-scenes machinations.

The May 2 UK local government elections saw a startling swing in support of the UK Independence Party (Ukip) – whose main policy platform is a pledge to remove Britain from the European Union – with the group polling around a quarter of the vote.

The sudden increase in backing was the largest surge in support for a fourth party in England since WWII and was variously dubbed “a sea change” and a “seismic event” in British politics. But The Observer’s columnist, Andrew Rawnsley, was decidedly less moved, urging such commentators to “take a cold shower and calm down”.

The results for the party, whose supporters UK Prime Minister David Cameron once described as “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”, were “clearly noteworthy” he said, “but it is extremely premature to start jabbering that this is a historic turning point.”

The vote demonstrated some voters’ exasperation with Europe and others’ frustration at the entire political system, he continued, adding –

The big challenge for all the established parties is how to deal with the ‘anti-politics’ mood that Ukip is feeding off, the resentment felt by many voters that Britain is run in their own interests and those of their friends by a lookalike metropolitan elite who are all implicated in the economic mess. [...] Ukip may be inhabited by oddballs, the unsavoury and worse, but there is one sense in which the mainstream parties should be grateful to this particularly English way of protesting. Across Europe, austerity is fuelling a revolt against the political establishment that is manifesting itself in surges of support for the hard left or the far right – parties such as Marine Le Pen's Front National in France and the fascist Golden Dawn in Greece. We will have done well if Ukip is as ugly as it ever gets here.

A year to the day after his election to the French presidency, socialist leader François Hollande's approval rating now stands at 24 per cent, the lowest level ever reported for a president of the Fifth Republic at this stage in his term.

On May 5, the Left Party (PG), which supported Hollande’s election, organised a demonstration, which brought between 30,000 and 180,000 people onto the streets of Paris, to deplore “the failure” of the Socialist-Green government led by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.

When he was elected to the French presidency on May 6, 2012, François Hollande intended "to reorient European policy" away from the hard line on budgetary austerity advocated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But after a year, the results of his efforts "have failed to live up to his initial hopes,” argues Le Figaro. Not only did “the alliance which he tried to organise with southern countries to counter northern states prove to be ineffective,” but “relations with Berlin have never been so strained.”

The conservative daily notes that —

The voice of France is increasingly inaudible, however, the message about the dangers of excessive austerity has widely been heard, even in Brussels. [...] Perhaps François Hollande’s mistake was to be right too soon.

The Mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, on May 2 banned a food distribution operation organised by the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which offers help exclusively for Greeks.

Furious at the decision, Golden Dawn MP Yorgos Germenis "brandished a firearm", reports the daily, adding that the politician attempted to strike the mayor but instead injured a child. Police used teargas to disperse neo-Nazi activists.

It is the first time that authorities have outlawed what the newspaper describes as the “soup kitchen of hatred.” The daily wonders if the move represents a real change in the government’s attitude or if the power struggle with Golden Dawn has been motivated by the prospect of 2014 municipal elections.

There will be no tributes paid to German soldiers during the Dutch national remembrance day on May 4, which commemorates Dutch citizens who died during the Second World War and in peace missions since 1945.

The national committee clarified its position to avoid confusion after a storm of protest during last year’s celebrations when it emerged that a 15-year old boy was due to recite a poem about his great-uncle, a member of the Nazi SS. After much debate, the committee banned the poem, recalls Trouw.

The daily also dedicates its frontpage to the re-opening of the renovated Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, on May 1.

Pressure from the Eurosceptic Ukip may push Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to give British MPs a vote on an in-out referendum ahead of 2017, the year he has pledged to put the decision before the nation.

If MPs voted in favour of holding a referendum, this would commit the government to the controversial poll on the UK’s European Union membership. The PM hinted at the new plan as the country votes today in a series of county council elections.

“Mr Cameron has always held back from giving MPs a pre-election vote on his proposed referendum. It would split the coalition while enraging pro-European Tories. But his willingness to entertain the idea is an indication of the pressure from Nigel Farage’s Eurosceptic party and large numbers of his own MPs,” writes The Times.

On April 29, Italy’s new coalition government, headed by Enrico Letta (Democratic Party), was approved by the lower house of the parliament with 453 votes against 153 and is also expected to receive approval from the senate on April 30.

In his speech to MPs, Letta revealed some of the basic points of his program: cutting labour costs and reducing the housing tax (IMU), as requested by his coalition partners in the People of Freedom party, as well as abolishing public funding to parties. He gave himself 18 months to start the reforms.

After the senate vote, Letta will embark on a series of diplomatic visits to Brussels, Berlin and Paris in hopes of reassuring Italy’s European partners, but also to request a looser interpretation of the stability pact for his country.

“The honeymoon is over. Franco-German relations have been cooled by the euro crisis,” remarks the business daily.

“In the wake of the harsh criticism of the German Chancellor leveled by France's Socialists, both governments attempted to limit the damage,” writes Handelsblatt. However, “now Angela Merkel’s second-in-command has poured petrol on the flames”: Finance Minister Philip Rösler recently authored a report, obtained by the newspaper, which “enumerates the economic and political weaknesses” of Germany’s neighbour.

In particular, it singles out “the increasing cost of labour and high payroll taxes,” the "shortest working hours in the EU”, and “the highest tax and social welfare burden in the eurozone.”

According to Rösler, French competitiveness is in decline and industries, struggling under the weight of taxes, are leaving the country, explains Handelsblatt. "France is drifting south," argues the minister, who believes that the country can no longer play a stabilising role in the euro crisis.

On the day of the abdication of Queen Beatrix and the accession to the throne of her son Willem-Alexander, 46, the newspaper enumerates “seven reasons to celebrate” a monarchy that is so often the target of criticism.

In its list, the daily includes the competence of the future king, the fact that since last year he has avoided any involvement in politics, the “glamour” of royalty when compared with a simple president, the king’s role in representing the country in international trade visits, and the “national cohesion” he inspires.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has fired Justice Minister Jarosław Gowin after just a year and a half in the role. “I don’t have time to explain the minister away every week”, said Tusk, stressing that Gowin, who comes from the same Civic Platform (PO) party, unnecessarily “politicised” issues under his care and expressed opinions that were “troublesome” for the cabinet.

Rzeczpospolita notes that Gowin lost his post after accusing IVF clinics of trading with human embryos and even selling them to Germany where they were allegedly used for experiments.

Gowin will be replaced by Marek Biernacki (PO), a former interior affairs minister in the government of Jerzy Buzek.

Tomorrow, 46-year-old Willem Alexander is set to take over the throne of the Netherlands from his mother, Queen Beatrix.

For Belgians, the succession of the Prince of Orange could amount to "a dress rehearsal" in the light of rumours that, "over the last few months, have predicted that Albert II will abdicate in favour of his son Philippe." Commentators have remarked that the king appears tired and that "the prince is eager to rein." However, for the Belgian daily,

the prospect of a political cataclysm in the aftermath of general elections on May 25, 2014, will further complicate a takeover which has already been called into question, notably with regard to Prince Philippe’s capacity to take on the duties of King of Belgium.

At the same time, the differences between the two countries "have added to the complexity of comparing the two successions".

In April 28 regional parliamentary elections, the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) maintained its position as the leading party in the Austrian state, with 39.6 per cent of the vote. However, the outcome was the worst ever score for the party in the Tyrol.

The socialists of the SPÖ, who were placed second with 13.8 per cent, will also have to contend with a decline in support, which saw them post their worst ever result in the state.

They were nonetheless ahead of the Greens (12.1 per cent) and “Forward Tyrol” — a party created by ÖVP dissidents, which scored 9.3 per cent. The far right FPÖ obtained 9.6 per cent, a decline of 2.8 per cent compared with its performance in 2008.

Ahead of the 70th anniversary of the Wołyń massacre, priests of the Ukrainian Church Council are calling on Poles and Ukrainians to once again express forgiveness for “a chain of evil that goes back several hundred years”.

In 1943-1944, Ukrainian nationalists killed up to 100,000 Poles in Wołyń, which before WWII belonged to Poland. As many as 20,000 Ukrainians are estimated to have died in Polish retaliatory attacks.

Gazeta Wyborcza notes that

this unprecedented appeal […] has the potential to cool tensions ahead of July’s anniversary, which always proves to be a difficult test for Polish-Ukrainian relations.

As Italy’s new government was being sworn in at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome on the morning of April 28, a man opened fire near the main entrance of Palazzo Chigi, the site of cabinet meetings, injuring two policemen, one of them seriously, and a woman bystander.

Luigi Preiti, 49, who had recently lost his job and separated from his wife, tried to flee but was immediately captured. He said he had been thinking for some time of “killing some politicians, then killing myself”, but had reportedly run out of ammunition.

The 21 ministers headed by Democratic Party (PD) caretaker Enrico Letta were not informed of the attack, and were sworn into office by the usual procedure. The coalition government supported by PD, Berlusconi’s People of Freedom and Civic Choice will face a confidence vote in parliament on Monday afternoon.

"It is useless to win or lose elections," if you keep the mood of unease, President Aníbal Cavaco Silva said during his speech to mark the official celebrations for the April 25 revolution.

On the 39th anniversary of the revolution, the president said that "ongoing conflict and the absence of consensus will penalise political players themselves." He also acknowledged that the troika’s (EU-IMF-ECB) bailout programme "has led to serious consequences" for the Portuguese but meant "positive results" for the banking system and the country’s balance of payments.

Several thousand people took to the streets shouting slogans such as "IMF, get out of here" and railing against the president's speech, while opposition political parties accused the president of “patronising” the government.

On the 39th anniversary of the Portuguese revolution, which brought to an end a dictatorship government that ruled the country for 41 years, demonstrations are planned against the government’s austerity policy.

Several key figures have announced they will be absent from the the traditional solemn parliamentary session to mark the event, including former president Mário Soares and poet Manuel Alegre, whose song Trova do vento que passa will launch the ceremony.

This non-attendance is a consequence of the fact that "political leadership is at odds with the spirit of the April 25 [revolution], its ideals and its values," the left-wing daily explains.

Caretaker leader of the Democratic Party (PD) Enrico Letta, 46, was given a mandate from President Giorgio Napolitano on April 24 to form a government and immediately started talks with the centrist Civic Choice (Scelta civica) and Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party.

Negotiations have already hit stumbling blocks. The PDL wants its senior figures in key departments, such as the interior and education ministries, while the PD prefers non-party figures.

The crucial economic ministry should be headed by Bank of Italy chairman Fabrizio Saccomanni.

Another obstacle is Berlusconi’s resolve to cancel the highly unpopular housing tax, set up by outgoing PM Mario Monti, and refund what has been paid so far, a move that the PD say would precipitate another financial emergency. Letta is expected to face a confidence vote on Monday.