15/03 – Today’s headlines from across the EU

EUROPEAN HEADLINES

FT Europe – Anbang drives on China’s global spree with $13bn Starwood deal. Insurer aims to trump Marriott with all-cash offer. Rush for overseas assets gathers pace.

WSJE – Bid roils Starwood deal. China’s Anbang leads $12.8 billion offer, threatening pending merger with Marriott.

INYT – Pivotal races looming in U.S. campaigns. Sanders seeks new upset, while Rubio risks losing home state to Trump.

BBC Europe – First Russian planes leave after Putin surprise move. Russian forces have started leaving Syria after Monday’s surprise withdrawal announcement by President Vladimir Putin.
Russian defence ministry video showed the first group of aircraft taking off from Hmeimim air base in Syria on Tuesday morning and later in flight.

FRANCE

Le Monde – The extreme right disrupts the German political landscape. AfD advances with its anti-migrant message and hits Merkel hard in three federal states.

Les Echos – SMEs affected by Holland’s setback on Labour Law. On Monday the government withdrew the capping of labour tribunal benefits; However, the draft bill remains almost unchanged as regards economic redundancies.

GERMANY

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) – Merkel contradicts Seehofer: AfD is not an existential problem for the CDU. Bavarian PM urges change in refugee policy. Difficult coalition discussions.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) – Merkel risks a crash. After the election debacle, CSU chief calls for an immediate change of course in the refugee policy. It’s about “the existence” of the CDU/CSU. The Chancellor wants to stick to her line.

ITALY

La Repubblica – Public sector bids: from roads to kindergardens, Rome’s system is illegal. From the refurbishment of roads to rentals, here is Rome’s irregular bidding process exposed.

Il Sole 24 Ore – High acquisitions of treasury bonds, spreads to 100. European stock exchanges (but Milan) increasing, oil goes down.

POLAND

Gazeta Wyborcza – Poles are not fond of reading books. The National Library sounds the alarm in its latest report that 4.7 million of Poles did not read any type of long text in 2015. This has been the worst result ever since the research on Poles readership was started in 1992.

SPAIN

El País – Congress wants to fully control the government. The institution will discuss today, with the support of PSOE, Ciudadanos and Podemos, ways to force Ministers to take the stand.

The Times – Osborne aims to build his way out of trouble. George Osborne is to accelerate the spending of billions of pounds on new roads, railways and housing in an effort to keep the economy from stagnating.

The Guardian – Housing crisis, but not for all. Having a child while living in rental accommodation has become unaffordable for young families in two-thirds of the UK, the Guardian can reveal.