Eurotopics.net

French President Macron plans to present his eagerly awaited reform for increasing labour market flexibility at the end of August. Commentators discuss what's at stake.

Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a 10-year guarantee of non-belligerence, on 24 August 1939. In a secret supplementary protocol Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence and Lithuania to the German sphere. This chapter in the history of the Baltic states still moves commentators today.

Former Turkish interior minister and MP for the right-wing nationalist MHP, Meral Akşener, has founded a new party. After a major row last year with MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli over his support for Erdoğan and the latter's presidential system, Akşener, who enjoys strong support among Turkey's right, wants to form a secular centre-right opposition. What are the party's chances of success?

In Venice, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca activists are demonstrating against the growing numbers of tourists. The problems connected with mass tourism, including rent hikes, pollution and noise have driven them to creative actions, but also vandalism. The issue also prompts reactions from commentators in countries outside southern Europe that are not directly affected.

In Turkey the trial against 486 people who allegedly took part in a failed coup orchestrated by preacher Fethullah Gülen in the summer of 2016 is under way. The prosecution wants life imprisonment for many of the accused - and crowds outside the court are calling for the death sentence. The expectations of the press regarding the trial vary considerably.

France's Interior Minister Gérard Collomb announced in an interview with the Sunday paper Le Journal du Dimanche that the French authorities want to differentiate more clearly in the future between asylum seekers and economic migrants, and to ensure that the latter are sent home more effectively. France's journalists are up in arms.