There has long been an assumption, undiminished as Germany entered this election year, that the centre-right is certain to prevail and Angela Merkel will be returned for a third term as Chancellor in the autumn. The assumption is as little contested in Germany as it is outside the country. And the fortunes of the main opposition parties have done little to persuade anyone otherwise.

Tom Leece is Film and TV editor at Fourth & Main

Activists gather in Glasgow to try to steer breakway movement sharply to the left

It is estimated that more than five million people in the UK are facing fuel poverty. Average annual household bills for gas and electricity exceed £1,200, and uSwitch has predicted that by 2020 this could rise to £3,202. Yet energy companies' profit margins go up and up. Ofgem warned last October that profits on dual fuel deals had risen from £15 per household to £125 – a rise of 733 per cent.

New plans for designating green spaces could mean communities lose out on being able to protect local areas they cherish, the UK's oldest conservation organisation has warned.

Eva Joly is about to complete one of the most extraordinary CVs in world politics. At the age of 18, she was a Norwegian beauty queen. At 20, she was an au pair in France. At 37, she was a feared French investigative magistrate.

The Dublin political world was in ferment yesterday as the junior partner in the doomed administration pulled its ministers out of government, forcing an earlier general election than had been scheduled.

Ireland's junior coalition partners the Greens will today decide if it will pull out of Government over the dramatic resignation of Taoiseach Brian Cowen as leader of the ruling Fianna Fail party.

The Liberal Democrats are facing twin electoral assaults from the Green Party and the National Union of Students in the wake of the party's U-turn on tuition fees

France will gain a new political party this weekend which could, it believes, instantly become an important player in the country's future.

Brazil's Green Party opted yesterday to remain neutral in the country's 31 October presidential runoff, saying the move could help members gain leverage and participate in the nation's political debate more actively.

MP's should be allowed to "job share", the Green Party's leader, Caroline Lucas, said yesterday.