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Germany
German media on Wednesday focused on Chancellor Angela Merkel, who on Tuesday lost one of her key allies when her center-right bloc rejected her hand-picked choice, Volker Kauder, to lead its parliamentary group, and voted in challenger Ralph Brinkhaus instead. Papers portrayed the episode as evidence of the chancellor losing power, in parliament and beyond.
- Die Welt reported that the chancellor had conceded the episode could not be “sugarcoated” — and that Merkel “admitted defeat.”
- Die Zeit noted that the rebellion was an “attack” on Merkel’s power.
- Tagesschau focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s fiery speech at the United Nations General Assembly, saying he had “praised himself” and “demonized” others.
UK
The British press was all about the Labour Party conference, which entered its final day on Wednesday.
- The FT previewed Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s speech, to be delivered Wednesday, in which he will “take aim at ‘greed-is-good’ capitalism” and announce “massive public investment” in projects including green energy.
- The Guardian also reported on Corbyn’s “plans to change [the] direction of economy,” saying he would vow “to end ‘greed-is-good’ capitalism in U.K.”
- The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg meanwhile asked: “So where does Labour now stand on Brexit?”
- Tabloid Express meanwhile focused on “chaos” in the Labour Party, after Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer suggested in his conference speech that “voters should be given the chance to choose to stay in the EU in a fresh referendum.”
Austria
Austrian media looked both inwards and beyond the country.
- Der Standard reported on the the EU’s attempts to “protect Iran” from U.S. sanctions.
- Tiroler Tageszeitung focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s U.N. speech, noting that in “Trump’s world, everyone fights for himself.”
- Tabloid Krone ran with a response by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz to the interior ministry’s press freedom scandal. The chancellor criticized the interior ministry, saying that any “restriction of press freedom [was] not acceptable.”
France
The latest in the Benalla affair made the headlines in France.
- RTL and Le Monde reported that former Macron aide Alexandre Benalla is under investigation over an April 2017 selfie he took with a gun. According to the reports, Benalla allegedly did not have the appropriate gun license for the weapon.