Eurotopics.net

In view of the situation in Ukraine, but also Russia's political disputes with the EU and the US, there was much excitement about what Vladimir Putin would say in his annual state-of-the-nation address. However, no drastic decisions were announced; the main focus was on social and economic measures. Commentators have very different explanations for this.

After seven years, talks between Switzerland and the EU aimed at a new institutional framework agreement are in danger of collapsing. Swiss President Guy Parmelin is to meet EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tomorrow, but in recent weeks Bern has neither given concrete answers to Brussels' questions nor presented proposals for a partnership agreement. Commentators conclude that the only goal now is damage control.

Tourism in Greece is to be ramped up again from May 15, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in a televised speech on Wednesday evening. Covid-related restrictions will be relaxed in the coming weeks, with restaurants and cafés reopening from May 3. Commentators are emphatically unenthusiastic.

CDU leader Armin Laschet has been nominated as the conservative CDU-CSU alliance's candidate for chancellor in the 2021 federal elections. The decisive factor was the vote of the CDU executive board on Tuesday night, after which the CSU leader Markus Söder withdrew his candidacy saying he will now support Laschet "without rancour and with all his strength". European media emphasise Laschet's qualities compared to Söder's, who is stronger in the polls, but note that the CDU-CSU bloc has taken a battering.

In the George Floyd case, a Minneapolis court jury has found ex-police officer Derek Chauvin guilty on all three counts he was facing: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter. Commentators hail the verdict as a historic and promising start in the fight against racist police violence.