EUROPEAN HEADLINES

FT Europe – IMF tells eurozone to begin Greece talks. Letter from Lagarde calls for negotiations on debt relief.

WSJE – UK opposition Labour party dealt blow in local elections. The U.K.’s main opposition Labour Party lost seats in local and regional elections, dealing a blow to the party’s divisive leader Jeremy Corbyn in his first major electoral test.

INYT – IHT – Scottish nationalists win third term in Parliamentary elections. The Scottish National Party lost its majority, but its leader, Nicola Sturgeon, called the victory “historic” as votes continued to be counted in contests across Britain.

BBC Europe – EU has ‘too many part-time Europeans’ – Juncker.  EU leaders say the 28-nation bloc lacks a coherent European vision and is being undermined by national self-interest. “We have too many part-time Europeans,” said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. It is the Commission’s job to draft EU laws. He and other EU leaders spoke in Rome in a debate on the state of the EU.

FRANCE

Le Monde – British Labour suffers serious setback. Although it did not appear the extent that some polls predicted , the setback to the Labour Party, Thursday, May 5 , in the UK at the local and regional elections , should lead the opposition party led by the left-winger Jeremy Corbyn to have a serious introspection.

Les Echos – Scotland: The nationalists victorious, Labour undermined. The Scottish National Party is re-elected head of the Edinburgh government. For the first time in more than a century, Labour are relegated to third position in Scotland.

GERMANY

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) – Trump: A liar and a rabble-rouser. The victory of billionaire Donald Trump in the American primaries is tragic and dangerous. Millions of Americans feel finally understood . But many demands of billionaire are racist , stupid or unconstitutional.

Süddeutsche Zeitung – Dairy farmers at the centre of standoff in EU-US Trade deal negotiations. Many German dairy farmers are braced for the worst as a trade agreement between the United States and the European Union is being negotiated, fearing they would be destroyed by bigger U.S. producers in a free market.

ITALY

La Repubblica – Pope: Europe is old, puts up walls, burns bridges, What is happening?

SPAIN

El Pais –  Parties quarrel over ways to reduce cost of new election campaign. The last vote in December cost taxpayers €130 million due to subsidies for political mail and parliament seats.

UK

The Times – Corbyn under fire after disastrous result in Scotland.  Labour has suffered a disastrous election result in Scotland after being beaten into third place by the Conservatives in their former heartland. In an outcome that one Labour MP said would be “cataclysmic for morale”, the party lost 13 MSPs in a result that showed Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to help Labour recover in Scotland had not materialised.

The Guardian – UK elections: Jeremy Corbyn declares ‘we hung on’ after mixed night for Labour. Scottish Labour facing third place after Tory surge.