Eurotopics.net

The Greeks elect a new parliament on May 21. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' ruling conservative Nea Dimokratia slumped in the polls after the train accident in March, but is still in the lead. In second place is former PM Alexis Tsipras with his left-wing opposition alliance Syriza. On 10 May a televised debate took place with all six leaders of parties represented in parliament.

On Thursday, the Austrian parliament decided to discontinue the world's oldest daily newspaper: as of 1 July the state-owned Wiener Zeitung will only be published digitally. At the same time, private media are protesting against the reform of public broadcasting under which national broadcaster ORF will be allowed to produce new content exclusively for the internet. The broadcasting fee system is also to be restructured and the fees lowered.

Ex-president Donald Trump has been ordered to pay five million dollars (around 4.6 million euros) in compensatory damages to US journalist and author E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation. The New York jury rejected the accusation of rape, however. Europe's press debates whether the verdict will have an impact on Trump's political ambitions - and behaviour.

In his speech to the EU Parliament on 9 May, German Chancellor Scholz praised Europe Day as a response to the Second World War and to "destructive nationalism and imperialist megalomania". Europe must continue to rely on the US as a geopolitical partner, whereas China behaves more like a rival, he said. He also stressed that more EU Council decisions should be made on the basis of a qualified majority instead of the current unanimity principle.