Eurotopics.net

The huge mausoleum for General Franco is a thorn in the side of the new Spanish government. It wants to move the remains of the man who ruled over Spain with an iron fist from 1939 to 1975. Spain could no longer allow itself symbols that divide the nation, Prime Minister Sánchez said. Can the exhumation bring Spanish society together?

Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation against Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. The leader of the xenophobic party Lega is accused of abuse of office and the illegal detention after refugees were forced to spend ten days on a ship. Does the investigation really pose a threat for Salvini?

Foreign-looking bystanders were assaulted in the German city of Chemnitz on Sunday during a protest march staged by right-wing groups. The protests began after arrest warrants were issued against a Syrian man and an Iraqi man in connection with the killing of a German citizen. The problem of right-wing extremism has been played down for too long in the state of Saxony, commentators write, demanding that politicians address the issue.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has accused Pope Francis in a letter of having covered up allegations of abuse against the former archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick to protect the "gay lobby" in the Vatican. Previously, the Pope had harshly condemned the cases of abuse within the Catholic Church. In the view of commentators the allegations have the potential to harm Francis's legacy.

The Romanian Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader announced an investigation into the activities of Prosecutor General Agustin Lazăr on the weekend. The press sees parallels with the removal from office of anti-corruption authority director Laura Codruța Kövesi and criticises the move as another assault on the judiciary.