Eurotopics.net

The Ukrainian parliament passed a new law aimed at curbing the influence of oligarchs last Thursday. The country's ultra-rich are now to be listed in a register kept by the National Security and Defence Council, whose members are appointed by the president - a cause of concern for some commentators.

Turkey is struggling with high inflation: consumer prices have risen by 19.25 percent in the past year and food prices by as much as 29 percent. President Erdoğan has accused five major supermarket chains of causing the extreme increase in prices and declared war on them. Commentators say his risky financial policy is to blame.

The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) has won a surprise victory in local elections in Graz. Its candidate Elke Kahr could now lead a communist-social democrat-green coalition (red-red-green) coalition as mayor of Austria's second largest city. The conservative mayor Siegfried Nagl (ÖVP), who held his post for many years, resigned on the eve of the election. The KPÖ's success is above all due to its citizen-oriented policies, commentators believe.

The SPD under chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz has narrowly won the Bundestag election. With 25.7 percent of the vote, the Social Democrats are in the lead against the CDU/CSU (24.1 percent), the Greens (14.8 percent) and FDP (11.5 percent). Since the SPD and the CDU/CSU do not want to continue their grand coalition everything points to a three-party coalition, which would be a first for Germany. Commentators note that this could put austerity back on the European agenda.

For the first time in 16 years, Angela Merkel will no longer be German chancellor. But after all this time the Germans have not voted for radical change, commentators note with delight and amusement.