Eurotopics.net

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel's memoirs hit the bookshops today. The content of the 700-page biography, which has been translated into 30 languages and is titled "Freedom: Memoirs 1954 - 2021", has been kept top secret until now. European commentators look back at Merkel's life and time in office.

The authorities in several northern European countries are preparing their populations for increasingly likely emergency scenarios such as war, environmental disasters and other threats. Swedish households have received brochures, Finland has a dedicated website providing key information, and Norway has also recently published guidance on preparing for such scenarios. The press focuses on what matters in emergency situations.

The 29th UN Climate Change Conference in Baku has come to an end. For two weeks, delegates from around the world grappled over a new financial equalisation formula between industrialised and developing countries in global climate protection funding. In the end, they agreed on 300 billion dollars per year as of 2035. The estimated required sum was 1.3 trillion, however.

Before the Romanian presidential election, speculation was rife about whether George Simion of the far-right AUR party would make it to the runoff vote. Now, another far-right candidate has surprisingly taken the lead: Călin Georgescu, who was charged with Holocaust denial in 2022 and has sharply criticised Romania's Nato membership. Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu apparently came in third, just a few votes behind the centre-right candidate Elena Lasconi, which means he won't be in the runoff vote.