Eurotopics.net

For the second time in eight days German Chancellor Angela Merkel was caught on camera suffering a bout of shaking. The incident has prompted media to speculate about the chancellor's health and the consequences of the stabilising politician's potentially withdrawing from politics. Others say the incident is being blown out of proportion.

After 17 hours of parliamentary debate Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on Thursday morning. Five opposition parties had called the vote after the Czech Republic saw its biggest protests in 30 years against the billionaire head of government who is facing charges of corruption. Why did the opposition's initiative fail?

Denmark's Social Democratic election winner Mette Frederiksen has secured the support of the Socialist People's Party SF, the Red-Green Alliance and the left-liberal Danish Social Liberal Party to form a minority government focusing on the climate and welfare. The plan: to lower emissions by 70 percent by 2030. But not all the press reactions to the new government are positive.

Part of the judicial reform in Poland violates EU law, the ECJ has ruled after the EU Commission filed a complaint against the country. The forced retirement of judges, which Warsaw had already revoked, is illegal according to the ECJ's ruling. The court is still examining other parts of the judicial reform but commentators find this first decision reassuring.

Roughly three weeks after the murder of Walter Lübcke, head of the regional government in the German city of Kassel, the presumed murderer Stephan E. has confessed to the crime and said that he acted alone and killed Lübcke because he was angry about his statements on refugee policy. Stephan E. is said to have contacts in the far-right milieu. How could things get so out of hand?