Eurotopics.net

EU Commission President von der Leyen has warned EU states against disproportionate crisis measures. With its approval of an emergency law, Hungary's parliament had previously given Prime Minister Orbán power to govern by decree for an unlimited time. Europe's press is worried that the model could set a precedent and demands swift action from Brussels.

Throughout Europe countries are running out of protective face masks, most of which are produced in China. Germany imposed an export ban at the beginning of March and now the Czech Republic has followed suit. In France all stocks were confiscated so they could be distributed to health workers. Commentators discuss ways to deal with the shortages.

Most of the European countries that already have lockdown restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic have extended them until Easter or shortly thereafter. However experts and many commentators expect the more or less strict lockdowns to continue beyond that point - and are looking at how to tackle this challenging situation.

A week's holiday on full pay for the entire country, subsidies for businesses and the socially disadvantaged, and the postponement of the constitutional referendum scheduled for April 22: these measures to curb Covid-19 were announced by the Russian president in a televised address on March 25. Since then Putin has not appeared in public. The press wants to know why.