Eurotopics.net

Almost two years after the Ponte Morandi motorway bridge collapsed, killing 43 people and injuring hundreds more, Genoa is to inaugurate a new bridge designed by the city's star architect Renzo Piano today. Commentators join in the applause for the rapid completion of the bridge, but also take a cautionary look at the tragedy.

Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus's president of 26 years, is in trouble in the run-up to the presidential election on August 9. Thousands of people took to the streets in support of opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on the weekend. Tikhanovskaya entered the race for the presidency in place of her husband, who is in prison. The wives of other candidates whose husbands were not admitted as candidates followed suit. Observers see change coming to the country.

Several Polish municipal and county governments have passed resolutions proclaiming themselves as so-called "LGBT ideology-free zones". The EU Parliament had already condemned such declarations in December 2019. Now for the first time the EU Commission has rejected applications for local funding from the places concerned. Can Brussels stop discrimination with this approach?

The genocide of 500,000 Sinti and Roma in World War II was commemorated in several European countries on Sunday. On 2 August 1944 the last 4,300 people belonging to the so-called "Gypsy Camp" group at Auschwitz died in the gas chambers. This element of the Holocaust has been given little attention in the culture of remembrance in the Czech Republic and Slovakia despite their relatively large Roma populations, commentators complain.

Following the announcement that the US will withdraw troops from Germany and station some of them in other European states, resistance to the move is growing among US Democrats and some Republicans. They argue that the plan will weaken Nato and play into Russia's hands. But rather than hoping that the withdrawal will be cancelled Europe should deal with the consequences, commentators warn.

After tensions between Greece and Turkey escalated into threatening military gestures, Ankara has suspended its exploratory drilling for gas in the eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish drilling ship 'Oruc Reis' has returned to the port of Antalya and Greece has withdrawn several naval vessels. According to media reports, talks have already begun between Ankara and Athens. The media nod their approval.