European Union

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's grip on power has also loosened as a result of the Strache scandal. On Monday Kurz initiated the process of Interior Minister Herbert Kickl's removal from office, to which the FPÖ reacted with the resignation of all its ministers. The opposition has announced that it plans to introduce a motion of no-confidence against Kurz after the European elections - which the FPÖ may now support. What comes next?

In the video that triggered the government crisis in Austria the former Vice-Chancellor and FPÖ leader Heinz-Christian Strache held out the prospect of government contracts to the supposed niece of a Russian oligarch. Commentators are not surprised by this evidence that the FPÖ leadership succumbed to the temptation of Russian money.

The new Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky's first act after his inauguration was to dissolve parliament and announce a snap election in two months' time. For the time being he lacks a majority in parliament that would allow him to push through reforms. The election was initially planned for October. Can Zelensky fulfil all the expectations?

Representatives of the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats have called for the sale of parts of the public television broadcaster SVT and radio broadcaster SR. The youth association of the conservatives in Stockholm has gone a step further and evoked the possibility of abolishing the public broadcasters altogether. The press is divided over the proposals.

Leading centre-right figures like Manfred Weber and Antonio Tajani are among the very few conservative candidates to have signed the pledge, set up by female staff at the European Parliament.

EU affairs ministers meeting on Tuesday in the Council of the EU adopted new rules that ban the use of plastics in certain throw-away items. The new directive will require producers of single-use products like straws, cutlery, and balloon sticks to use other material than plastic, which often ends up in the ocean, harming marine life. The new rules had already been agreed by EU ambassadors in January.