Mitsotakis unveils 300-million-euro support package to mitigate the impact of the war
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday announced a package of four targeted measures amounting to 300 million euros to provide economic support to Greek citizens in the period from April to May.
Androulakis questions government’s response to fuel crisis
PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis criticized the government’s measures announced Monday to manage fuel costs due to the Middle East war, during an interview to OPEN TV. Androulakis noted that PASOK had proposed from the very start a reduction in the Special Consumer Tax.
Greek security council approves purchase of air defense system, upgrade of F-16 jets
Greece’s security council, KYSEA, approved on Monday the purchase of a three-billion euro multi-layer air and drone defense system and the upgrade of 38 F-16 fighter jets, the country’s defense minister said on Monday. The total cost for the two projects, that were approved by a Greek parliamentary committee earlier in the month, was estimated at about 4 billion euros ($4.61 billion).
Overcrowding delays start of Tempe train disaster trial
Chaos and anger erupted inside a courtroom in Larissa, Central Greece, where the long-awaited trial over the 2023 Tempe train disaster was halted before proceedings began, amid protests over suffocating conditions. Lawyers’ associations warned they could abstain unless a new venue is found. The court adjourned until April 1, leaving authorities to resolve what critics called an affront to the rule of law.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1298958/overcrowding-delays-start-of-tempe-train-disaster-trial
ATHEX: Rollercoaster takes a turn upward
The five-day break from attacking Iranian energy facilities that US President Donald Trump announced on Monday reversed the major losses eurozone markets incurred when trading started, and the Greek stock market closed the day with considerable gains. No prizes then for guessing the nosedive for refineries and the rise for banks. Overall, there is little doubt among traders that the rollercoaster ride still a long way to go, so the relief recorded was rather mitigated.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1298998/athex-rollercoaster-takes-a-turn-upward
KATHIMERINI: Trump in search of exit from the war
TA NEA: Decoding the support measures
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: National Intelligence Service, Predator and Mitsotakis
RIZOSPASTIS: Tempe fatal rail-crash trial: Popular demand against any cover-up; political and criminal liabilities must be assigned
KONTRA NEWS: Disrespect for the 57 souls that were lost in the Tempe fatal rail-crash
DIMOKRATIA: Trial without oxygen
NAFTEMPORIKI: Stock market upgrade amid war
DRIVING THE DAY
DEALS DOWN UNDER: Ursula von der Leyen has finalized a major partnership with Australia, marking the second such agreement her Commission has struck this year as it seeks to hedge against an unpredictable Trump administration and boost relationships around the world.
Critical raw materials: Von der Leyen sealed a trade deal overnight with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (along with a defense partnership) that aims to give Europe’s exporters wider access to a fast-growing economy and to critical raw materials the bloc desperately needs to modernize.
Europe’s angle: According to the European Commission, the EU-Australia deal stands to boost EU exports to Australia (with which the EU already has a significant trade surplus) by 33 percent in coming years while saving European businesses some €1 billion per year in tariffs.
Farm protections: While farmers have traditionally opposed free trade agreements, the Commission hopes that far-reaching protections for so-called geographical indications — EU provenance indicators such as Parma ham or Feta cheese — will head off such complaints. According to Albanese’s press release, Australia won a few concessions: Food producers will continue to use names such as “parmesan” for cheese and “kransky” for sausages; winemakers will also be able to sell “prosecco” on local markets. In return, Canberra has agreed to protect the names of 165 European food products and 237 spirits.
Aussie farmers on edge: Australian producer groups had warned negotiators not to lock in what they saw as token beef quotas and were quick to express their disappointment. The National Farmers’ Federation said it was “extremely disappointed that negotiations for a free trade deal with the European Union have concluded without commercially meaningful agricultural market access gains,” compared to when Australia walked away from the deal in 2023.
That didn’t detract from the celebratory mood of von der Leyen’s speech to MPs and senators in Canberra. “When it comes to trade, Europe is open for business,” she said. “We are rearming. We are decarbonizing. We are preparing. We are becoming an independent Europe. And this means a more outward Europe … because showing up matters.”
There’s more to the deal than commerce — it’s also underpinned by hard geopolitical realities. The additional agreement between the countries on critical minerals is about the EU grappling with threats to its supply chain. As von der Leyen told Australian lawmakers in her speech, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East show that “dependencies can be weaponized.”
“We cannot be overdependent on any supplier for such crucial ingredients,” she told a receptive audience. “And that is precisely why we need each other.” Both Albanese and von der Leyen insisted it’s a “win-win”: Australia has the minerals to sell and the EU really wants to buy them.
Future minerals: “By diversifying, we reduce our reliance on China,” said European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill. “We gain inputs that we need for AI and green tech, and we can actually dial down our carbon footprint by doing business with Australia.”
Trump-hedging: Like the EU-India deal von der Leyen clinched in New Delhi two months ago, the Australia deal goes hand-in-hand with a defense partnership intended to allow Brussels and Canberra to more easily procure armaments from each other’s defense industries. Another massive trade deal signed in January, the Mercosur deal with a group of Latin American countries, doesn’t include that defense component.
What’s left unsaid: Europe is also on the hunt for new friends to hedge against the risk of blowups in the transatlantic relationship under U.S. President Donald Trump. The ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has further strained relations within NATO that were already frayed by the clash over Greenland.
Strategic diversity: Ryan Heath, Playbook’s original author and now our launch editor in Australia (stay tuned on that front), writes in to report: “It’s called a trade deal, but the new partnership between the European Union and Australia is about strategic diversification more than eliminating tariffs … Brussels and Canberra now think the geopolitical cost of not doing this deal is too high … each needs another reliable partner in an unreliable world.”
Defense angle: The deal with Brussels allows Australia to expand its participation in EU civilian and military missions and operations and represents a first step toward better access to the EU’s SAFE program, a €150 billion loan instrument to boost defense production and joint procurement, Jacopo Barigazzi reports.
Around the world in 10 days: In addition to Australia, top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas has also signed security and defense partnerships with Iceland and Ghana in recent days. “Australia and Europe may be oceans apart, but our security is inseparable,” Kallas told POLITICO. “If Russia prevails in Ukraine, it will also set a dangerous precedent for the Indo-Pacific.”
DON’T FORGET US! Washington’s ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, speaking to my colleague Camille Gijs Monday, urged the European Parliament to finally sign off on the EU-U.S. trade deal struck by von der Leyen and Trump last year. “Some people think that politically it might give them an advantage [for Parliament] to vote against. I hope that’s not the case,” Puzder said, adding it would be “economic malpractice” to block the deal.
Tech tensions: The American envoy also called for a structured dialogue between the EU and U.S. on the bloc’s digital rules such as the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, which have drawn the Trump administration’s ire for supposedly targeting U.S. companies and “censoring” free speech (though the architects of the latter law insist it doesn’t).
ELECTION WATCH
DANES GO TO THE POLLS: Denmark’s Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is looking to pull off a Houdini-like political comeback when the country votes in a national election today.
Just four months ago, Frederiksen seemed to be on her way out of power when her center-left party took a drubbing in local elections. Along with concerns about housing affordability and other cost-of-living pressures, some voters were unhappy about how much Copenhagen — one of Ukraine’s most generous supporters — was spending on Kyiv’s defense effort.
Greenland to the rescue: But then Frederiksen caught a wave amid heightened transatlantic tensions over Greenland, positioning herself as a staunch defender of Denmark’s sovereignty. She decided to roll the dice and call a snap election.
It looks like a winning bet: Frederiksen’s Social Democratic party is on track to win 21 percent of votes, 8 percentage points ahead of its closest rival, the Green Left party, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls.
But but but … winning the most votes is only half the battle in Denmark’s proportional system. Frederiksen would then have to form a coalition government — and, as my colleague Jakob Weizman explains in his guide to watching the election like a pro, she hasn’t completed her political escape just yet.
In a campaign dominated by domestic issues, Frederiksen’s big pitch to win left-wing voters was reviving a wealth tax that hasn’t been enforced for 30 years — drawing criticism from business groups and her opponents. But polls suggest the left and right blocs are running almost even, with neither on track to win enough seats for a parliamentary majority. And with Frederiksen and her coalition partners in the conservative Venstre party moving in different directions politically, a repeat of the current coalition arrangement appears unlikely.
That could thrust Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s foreign minister and leader of the liberal Moderates (the coalition’s third partner), into the role of kingmaker, Jakob writes. If Rasmussen doesn’t decide to work with her, Frederiksen has warned, “then we will, with a very high possibility, get a right-wing government in Denmark.”
When to tune in: Polls open at 8 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Exit polls are published shortly after polls close, but given how tight the race is a definitive outcome may not become clear until late tonight.
TOUGH DAY FOR MELONI: Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suffered a significant setback in a referendum that derailed a key justice reform and is being cast as a broader political rebuke, Gerardo Fortuna writes in to report.
Pollster Lorenzo Pregliasco told Playbook that although the failed referendum won’t affect the stability of Meloni’s government, it has dented her aura of invincibility and given hope to Italy’s fragmented opposition. Roughly one in 10 voters who skipped the European elections showed up for the referendum — a sign of a dissatisfied electorate mobilizing to send a signal.
Lorenzo Castellani, a professor at Rome’s Luiss University, said the center-right coalition can no longer be assumed to command a majority in the country. “It creates potential” for the opposition, Castellani said. “Not a guarantee of victory, but a window of opportunity.” Hannah Roberts has more analysis here.
FRENCH ELECTION FALLOUT: Former French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s reelection as mayor of Le Havre is positioning him as the leading candidate to take on the far right in next year’s presidential election. Marion Solletty examines his chances
CONFIDENTIALITY CRISIS
MORE LEAKS TO MOSCOW? POLITICO’s Chief EU Correspondent Zoya Sheftalovich has a must-read story out this morning reporting that Russia could be accessing thousands of confidential EU documents via the Alternative for Germany (AfD), according to three EU diplomats and four German lawmakers.
What it’s about: German MPs — including from the far-right AfD — can access a databank containing thousands of EU files, including confidential notes from ambassadors’ meetings where the bloc’s diplomats hash out positions on geopolitical issues such as plans to fund Ukraine using frozen Russian assets.
Green lawmaker Anton Hofreiter, the chair of the Bundestag’s EU affairs committee, said there are “justified suspicions of information leaking to China or Russia,” which are shaping how sensitive talks are conducted, as diplomats increasingly factor in the risk of exposure, Zoya reports. It comes after Hungary was accused of passing information about confidential discussions by EU leaders to Moscow — claims Hungary’s foreign minister described as “fake news.”
The AfD denies it passes information from the system to Russia or China. “We do not comment on baseless allegations,” a spokesperson for its parliamentary group said in response to a request for comment.
VIEW FROM WASHINGTON
NOT OUR PROBLEM: That’s the American position on Viktor Orbán blocking the EU’s promised €90 billion loan for Ukraine, according to U.S. Ambassador Andrew Puzder. “This is an internal EU issue, this isn’t a United States issue, they need to resolve the issue of how they’re going to finance Ukraine to the extent to which they’re gonna finance it,” he told Camille in their interview Monday.
It’ll all be fine: “Whether that loan goes through and the condition in which it goes through is something for the EU to resolve internally, and I have every confidence that they will resolve it,” Puzder added. The U.S. has stepped up pressure on Europe to increase its financial aid to Ukraine since Donald Trump entered office, while scaling back the support from Washington.
What about those alleged Russian leaks? Asked if the accusations that Hungary’s foreign minister informed Moscow about internal EU talks would change Washington’s stance toward Orbán, Puzder that’s “obviously a decision that the president has to make,” but that Trump “likes” him. (Trump on Saturday endorsed Orbán’s reelection campaign in a video streamed at the CPAC Hungary conference, saying: “I hope he wins big.”)
Closer together: Puzder declined to comment on the allegations but said he has “very good relationships” with Hungary’s representatives in Brussels. “I think Hungary has been very friendly to the United States, and we do share views on certain issues with Hungary,” he said, citing migration as a key point of convergence. He said the EU is now adopting the Hungarian model by hardening its migration policy.
Be patient: “I think a lot of the dust that’s been thrown in the air with respect to Hungary and its relationship with the European Union will settle down after the election. No matter which party wins, I think a lot of this will settle once the election’s over,” Puzder added.
IN OTHER NEWS
CLASH OVER BUDGET DISCOUNTS: A coalition led by France, Italy and Spain will speak out against the budget rebates enjoyed by wealthy northern EU countries as negotiations heat up over the bloc’s nearly €2 trillion cash pot from 2028. Around 20 countries are expected to voice their grievances during a discussion among national diplomats negotiating the budget, Gregorio Sorgi writes in to report.
CAN EUROPE COMPETE? POLITICO’s Competitive Europe summit kicks off in Brussels today with politicians, policymakers and experts coming together to assess the EU’s competitiveness push. Top of the agenda will be cutting red tape for businesses, self-sufficiency in tech, energy and defense, and how the EU can size up to the U.S. and China. Follow our live blog from 9 a.m.
EUROVISION FOR TREES: Add another to the list of contentious elections this week: The European Tree of the Year will be named in Brussels today, with Poland gunning to defend its crown for the fifth year running, after last year’s edition became unexpectedly hostile.