Eurotopics.net

Despite growing controversy Sweden is still refraining from adopting tougher measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Borders and primary schools have remained open and there are no restrictions on leaving home, although visits to retirement homes have been banned. Europe's media wonder if they should envy or feel sorry for the Swedes.

After a stalemate in Israel that has lasted for more than a year, the conservative Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White alliance struck a deal earlier this week to form a coalition for a "national emergency government". Media accuse Gantz of having betrayed his own principles under the pressure of the corona crisis.

Only last week the International Monetary Fund predicted the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s due to the coronavirus pandemic. The worldwide economic depression led to mass unemployment and promoted the rise of fascism. Commentators are divided about whether we are menaced by a similar scenario.

Many people are having to accept financial losses in the coronavirus crisis and there are calls for politicians to also renounce part of their income. New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has cut her salary by 20 percent and Austria's ministers plan to each donate one month's salary. Europe's media are divided on whether such sacrifices are a necessary gesture of solidarity.