Eurotopics.net

Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo have been chosen to host the Winter Olympics in 2026, trouncing the only rival, Stockholm. Commentators from both countries discuss why the Italians prevailed and why the Swedes shouldn't be too sorry that they lost.

Tyrol blocked certain rural roads around the autobahn that leads to Italy last weekend. Tyrolean Governor Günther Platter explained that the move was aimed at making things easier for the local population and guests in the province's villages. Bavaria's government reacted with anger and it was announced that the German transport ministry, which is led by politicians from the Bavarian CSU party, now plans to take Austria to court over the issue.

Opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu has won the repeat mayoral election in Istanbul against his rival Binali Yıldırım by a substantial margin. It was Erdoğan's conservative AKP that had pushed for a rerun of the vote. Commentators see the result above all as a defeat for the president.

This past weekend saw the biggest protest rally in the Czech Republic since the Velvet Revolution 30 years ago. Weeks of mass protests against Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš over a corruption scandal culminated on Sunday in a mass demonstration in Prague. Organisers say 250,000 people took part. Commentators are with them all they way.

A Russian MP who took the seat designated for the President of the General Assembly during the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy has triggered anti-Russian protests and riots in Tbilisi. After the incident Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili called Russia an 'enemy and occupier', to which the Kremlin responded by announcing that it was suspending Russian flights to Georgia as of 8 July.