Eurotopics.net

Saturday's celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of German reunification were on a far smaller scale than originally planned due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Today we live in the best Germany that has ever existed," President Steinmeier declared in Potsdam. "Our country has become more modern and more open because that was what we wanted." Commentators do not share his euphoria.

Sanctions will be imposed on Belarus but not on Turkey. This is the result of last week's EU special summit. The heads of state and government will simply continue to threaten the country with punitive measures and try to use the prospect of eased trade to coax Ankara into stopping its exploratory gas drilling in the Mediterranean. Disappointment and indignation prevail in the commentary columns.

Irina Slavina, editor-in-chief of the independent Russian news website Koza.Press, has died after setting herself on fire outside the police headquarters in the city of Nizhny Novgorod. The day before all the editorial equipment of the news outlet, which had already been sanctioned several times, had been confiscated. Slavina left a message saying that the Russian Federation was responsible for her death. Commentators say there is certainly some truth to this.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and his party Ano won the regional elections this weekend. However his partners in the national government - the social democrats and the communists - suffered such great losses that forming a coalition at the regional level will now be more difficult. This strengthens the position of the conservative and liberal opposition parties in the 2021 general election, the press concludes.

The EU has launched legal action against the UK after London failed to meet its ultimatum to withdraw its controversial Internal Market Bill. If signed into law the bill would override key sections of the existing Brexit Withdrawal Agreement with Brussels. Europe's press is divided on whether this will escalate the tensions or whether it is just a formality.