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Cover image: PRESS REVIEW © FRANCE 24 06:32Issued on: 02/11/2026 - 12:29Modified: 02/11/2026 - 12:33
PRESS REVIEW – Monday, November 2: Bulgarian papers discuss the country's new president. In Belarus, some political prisoners are held in psychiatric wards instead of prisons. Also: Hitler's Eagle's Nest burned down. Will it be rebuilt and should it? Finally, the queen of Halloween, Heidi Klum, flaunts her most disgusting costume yet.
Bulgarian paper Capital headlines with "Iliana Iotova has been elected president – her victory seals the new status quo". Iotova, who was already acting president, was an independent candidate, but supported by the Bulgarian Socialist Party and by Prime Minister Rumen Radev's party, Progressive Bulgaria. She ran against Andrey Gyurov, who was backed by Bulgaria's pro-Western parties. As a reminder, she was the president's vice president for nine years, before he resigned and was elected PM. The liberal and pro-Western paper writes that now, Radev and his ruling party have consolidated their control over the three branches of government – the National Assembly, the government and the presidency, which had previously acted as a political counterbalance. Now, the only remaining counterbalance to the government is the justice system. The paper says that the elections have also deepened divisions within Bulgarians and called into question the country's direction after Communism and the choice between Russia and Western allies.
Dnevnik looks at who exactly Iotova is: Bulgaria's first woman president. She has already spent many years at the political top, always supported by the Communists and later Socialists. After the fall of one of the country's most prominent Communist leaders in 1996 and during the post-Communist transition, she was the head of the Bulgarian Socialist Party's press centre. She then took part in national politics, with stints as an MEP, vice president and now president.
In Belarus, human rights groups warn of a dangerous practice. Radio Free Europe writes that at least 22 political prisoners are being held in psychiatric hospitals and not traditional prisons. Locking up critics of the government in psychiatric facilities has long been a method used in Soviet countries. Human rights defenders and doctors say that the method "has found a modern resurgence" in Belarus. The prisoners have to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment that has no predetermined end date. That means the prisoners are out of the conventional prison system and they cannot benefit from amnesties, for instance, and other basic rights.
In Germany, the Eagle's Nest, one of the last structural relics of Adolf Hitler's dictatorship, burned down in a suspected arson attack last month. Now, the burning question is: should it be rebuilt? The Guardian writes that with a far-right resurgence in Germany, experts there are divided as to whether the Eagle's Nest retreat is best restored or left as a ruin. Its architecture is intended to overwhelm and intimidate and combined with its history, it's a big tourist attraction: more than 300,000 tourists used to go there per year. But after the efforts of more than 200 firefighters, the tourist attraction is closed indefinitely. If it is reconstructed for a new generation of visitors, The Guardian says those in charge should try to mitigate the risk of creating a shrine for neo-Nazis.
Finally, Halloween is over, but one costume is still making the headlines: Heidi Klum's severed hand. Vogue France called it "her most disgusting ever" – the best Halloween compliment!
You can catch our press review every morning on France 24 at 7:20am and 9:20am (Paris time), from Monday to Friday.