Eurotopics.net

The Lega is for it, Five Star is against it: the row over the high-speed train connection between Turin and Lyon threatens to break up the coalition government in Italy. Now the two sides have agreed to postpone the decision on the project for six months. The contracts are to be offered for tenders but the details of the financing won't be discussed for the time being. Can this solution save the government?

From Tallinn to Helsinki in 20 minutes: a train tunnel between the Estonian and Finnish capitals which has been in planning for years is to make this possible. Now the Chinese firm Touchstone wants to invest 15 billion euros in the project and the planning company Finest Bay Area has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese. Should it think twice?

Women in several European countries took to the streets in March 1911 to demonstrate for their rights. Since 1921 International Women's Day has taken place every year on March 8. Europe's commentatory columns are full of articles about the lack of equality, patriarchal structures and domestic violence against women.

A controversy has ignited in Portugal over Joaquim Neto de Moura, a judge who has repeatedly given men who committed acts of domestic violence against women lenient and even suspended sentences. The judge has justified his lenience quoting the bible, arguing that women who commit adultery deserved such treatment. Is Portugal still in the Dark Ages when it comes to domestic violence?

Signs are growing that Orbán's Fidesz party will be expelled from the EPP after he refused EPP leader Manfred Weber's demand for an apology for anti-European statements and an anti-Brussels poster campaign. The EPP is to decide Fidesz's fate on 20 March. Hungarian commentators discuss the possibility of Fidesz choosing to leave the EPP of its own accord.