If the idea of talk about contingency plans is to scare the Greeks off leaving the single currency, it seems to be working

Fifteen months after Mubarak was forced to step down in one of the most electrifying moments of the Arab spring, this is the election that will usher in Egypt‘s „second republic“.

There are no more pharaohs any more. One by one, the men who would rule over Egypt‘s 80 million people arrived at their polling stations, posed for the cameras, and with self-consciously modest smiles walked to the back of the queue.

The government will recapitalize Bankia‘s parent group BFA using the state-backed bank restructuring fund, the FROB, and then will fund Bankia through a capital increase including preferential shares for existing shareholders, he said.

While noting that narrowly targeted cybersecurity rules could be helpful in protecting consumers, he stated that it seems clear that these bills are much more focused on opening up the internet for government to spy and monitor activities online:

If the French Socialist candidate is to do anything for the continent, it will be to legitimize an inherently unstable and profoundly unjust European capitalism.

French President Francois Hollande, the Socialist who rode an anti-austerity platform to victory and refused to talk with Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras, has warmly welcomed PASOK Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos – who imposed harsh austerity measures on Greeks.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos secured a meeting with Hollande in Paris on Tuesday and said the French president was “genuinely interested” in helping Greece overcome its problems.

Da der ESM bereits am 1. Juli in Kraft treten soll, sei seine Fraktion „prinzipiell zu einer Verabschiedung des ESM vor der Sommerpause bereit”, sagte Thomas Oppermann. Um wenigstens diesen Zeitplan einzuhalten, müsste der ESM-Vertrag in den letzten beiden Sitzungswochen Mitte und Ende Juni vom Bundestag ratifiziert werden.

Die Politik wird den Rettungsfonds ESM womöglich sehr bald zur indirekten Rettung notleidender Banken einsetzen.

Der spanische Ministerpräsident Mariano Rajoy will einem Zeitungsbericht zufolge die EZB noch heute bitten, mit dem direkten Ankauf von Staatsanleihen zu beginnen.

When I was in DC last week, the talk amidst the pundits in the Think Tanks and newspapers was regarding whether the next President of Egypt will be either Amr Moussa or AbulFotouh. In the absence of any real data or a clear front –runner, everyone assumed that the two with the highest media profiles would be the ones entering the run-off. One week later, this no longer rings to be true, with the bets now being placed on neither one of them making it. Why? Because they are both grey, and Egyptians, the great centrists that they are, when it comes to their President, are no longer interested in grey. Only Black or White. This is why AbuElFotouh and Moussa are now stagnating, and Mohamed Morsy, Ahmed Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabahy are all rising amidst the polls and the population. Why? Cause they are not grey.

Egyptian voters who took part in protests in Tahrir against Hosni Mubarak‘s regime and who have contributed to our live coverage of the Arab Spring in Egypt share their views on this week‘s presidential elections. We asked them: To what extent is this Egyptian presidential election fulfilling the hopes and aspirations that emerged during the revolution? If you are voting in the election, share your responses in the comments.

Die Proteste folgten auf einen tödlichen Angriff auf einen Einwohner der Stadt, der angeblich von einem afghanischen Migranten verübt worden war. (…)
Als die Polizisten, die die Einwanderer bewachten, von einer Gruppe von Anhängern der rechtsextremen Golden Dawn Partei mit Steinen beworfen und mit Stöcken bedroht wurden, setzten sie Tränengas ein.

Athen: “Konservative” Nea Dimokratia assimiliert “pro-europäische” Splitterparteien und Nationalisten.