Eurotopics.net

In Spain, the conservative Popular Party (PP) won local and regional elections on 28 May with 31.5 percent of the vote, leaving Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's Socialists in second place with 28.2 percent followed by the far-right Vox party in third position. Faced with the heavy losses of the left-wing parties, Sánchez has brought forward the general election from December to 23 July. The press sees major upheavals in Spain's and Europe's party landscape.

Moscow and Minsk agreed on Thursday that nuclear weapons over which Russia retains control are to be stationed in Belarus. According to Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenka the transfer has already begun. Commentators take different views of how much of a threat the move poses.

A group of nine EU members is calling for national veto rights to be abolished and replaced by majority decisions in foreign and defence policy in order to speed up decision-making processes. Hungary and Poland are apparently among the countries that want to stop the initiative, but others may follow.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is well known for his criticism of the Russian military leadership. But in a recent interview he used words that are unusually harsh even for his standards. An incompetent military elite has "fucked up" the war in Ukraine, and there could now even be a revolution, he said. After the Pyrrhic victory in Bakhmut commentators ask just what the mercenary leader could be getting at.

The legal extension of marriage to same-sex couples in Estonia was already part of the coalition negotiations between election winner Kaja Kallas' Reform Party, the Social Democrats and the centrist Estonia 200 party. The new government has introduced a proposal to this effect in parliament, where it is now the subject of heated debate. We take a look at the comments in the national press.

The world has lost one of its great singers of rock and soul music. Tina Turner died on Wednesday at the age of 83 after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland. Commentators mourn the loss of a strong woman.