Eurotopics.net

The last two nights have seen heavy rioting in several Dutch cities. Shortly before the nightly curfew was due to begin crowds of young people gathered, and some of them went on to vandalise shops, set fires, and attack police. Are the protests an expression of the psychological fallout of the pandemic or is the virus just an excuse?

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has announced that he will resign today, Tuesday. He narrowly won two votes of confidence last week after Matteo Renzi's Italia Viva party withdrew from his coalition government. Since then, Conte has had to operate with a minority government. Observers speculate on whether he will be able to secure a third mandate and whether he should.

In France, cartoonist Xavier Gorce has resigned from Le Monde after the French newspaper apologised for a cartoon he drew that referenced an incest scandal and contained allusions to rainbow and patchwork families. Gorce defended it as an ironic reaction to a statement by philosopher Alain Finkelkraut. The incident has triggered a storm of accusations about cancel culture, particularly on social media.

In Russian cities from the far east of the country to Kaliningrad, people took to the streets on Saturday to call for Navalny's release and protest against the state leadership - defying a ban on public assemblies and freezing temperatures. Police arrested around 4,000 people across the country. Europe's press speculates on whether this is the beginning of the end for Putin.

First Pfizer and now Astrazeneca have announced that they are unable to deliver the planned number of vaccine doses to the EU. Frustration and criticism are growing in Brussels and the member states, especially when fewer or no such shortages are occurring elsewhere. But the EU needs to address its own shortcomings before criticising others, commentators write.