Eurotopics.net

The Greek parliament approved a new austerity plan on Thursday evening. The package is based on a recent deal with Athens' creditors and foresees, in exchange for another tranche of bailout aid, cutbacks amounting to 4.9 billion euros that will mainly affect pensioners and the middle class. Europe's media complain that over the years the austerity programmes have failed to achieve their goal.

Theresa May presented the British Conservative Party's manifesto for the June 8 elections on Thursday. The prime minister announced policies that would not be "for the privileged few" as well as restrictions on immigration and tax cuts both for families and businesses. Europe's commentators take opposing views on whether her strategy for broadening the Tories' voter base will pay off.

Poland's government continues to reject demands that it take in more refugees. The country now faces EU treaty infringement proceedings if it fails to accept the agreed number of refugees from other EU states in the near future. While some commentators are filled with shame by the behaviour of the country's politicians, others find the social discourse on the issue questionable.

The people should return to politics - with this slogan Macron's movement La République en Marche has presented its candidates for the parliamentary elections in June. Many of them are new to politics, while most of the experienced politicians come from the Socialist camp. Europe's commentators take differing views of the situation and stress that the personnel carousel hasn't stopped spinning yet.