Mitsotakis on CNN: Europe cannot rely only on US for defense
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has welcomed the “clear commitment” by all NATO member states to commit to spending at least 2% of GDP on defense spending, adding that European countries cannot “just rely” on the US for their defense.
PM sends out strong message to Skopje
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ trip to the US for the NATO anniversary summit was dominated, if anything, by his strong messages to North Macedonia, both during his speech at the meeting and in the press conference that followed, where he took it one step further, leaving all possibilities open.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/foreign-policy/1243882/pm-sends-out-strong-message-to-skopje
Albania’s supreme court upholds Beleri verdict
Albania’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld a verdict of the lower courts keeping a former elected mayor from the country’s Greek minority in prison after he was convicted of buying votes.
High fire risk forecast on Monday in Attica, Crete and several Greek regions
There is a very high risk of fire (Category 4) on Monday in the regions of Attica and Crete, as well as in the regional units of the Corinth, Argolida, Viotia, Evia, Lesvos, Chios, Evros and Rodopi, according to the Fire Danger Forecast Map issued by the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection.
Greece makes significant strides in competition strengthening, according to OECD
Greece has made notable advancements in structural reforms aimed at bolstering competition, as highlighted in the latest OECD report.
ATHEX: Benchmark closes at a month-high
The benchmark of the Greek stock market ended the week at its highest point since June 10, doubling its weekly gains and offering optimism to traders who are seeking some midsummer opportunities in a market where trading volume is sliding by the week. Price growth was most notable during the closing auctions, which saw the main indexes at Athinon Avenue end up at the day’s highs.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1243892/athex-benchmark-closes-at-a-month-high
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: Interview with Cyprus Republic President Christodoulidis: Karamanlis could not avert Turkey’s invasion
TO VIMA: Three changes in presumptive tax criteria
REAL NEWS: All real estate assets under the scrutiny of the tax-office
PROTO THEMA: Novartis scheme: Intense reactions after revelation of €56 million hidden by false witnesses
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: Out of control: What is going on in the USA?
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: A bullet will be the judge of the Trump-Biden duel outcome
KONTRA NEWS: Ruling against Unified Social Security Fund EFKA for delaying pension-issue
DIMOKRATIA: Trump: Die Hard
NAFTEMPORIKI: The attempt against Trump changes the scenery
Greetings and welcome to Brussels Playbook. Viva España! Hearty congratulations to Spain for winning the European Championship on Sunday night, and our sympathies to England’s supporters.
I’m Nick Vinocur, starting you off on this most fateful week for the European Union. We’ll get into Ursula von der Leyen’s efforts to lock in 361 votes when Parliament votes on her second term as Commission president shortly — but first here’s the latest from the United States, where former President Donald Trump was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt.
BLOODIED, DEFIANT TRUMP REDEFINES U.S. CAMPAIGN: The image of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist and mouthing the words “fight” as Secret Service agents hustled him off the stage after he was shot by a sniper during a Pennsylvania rally is the image of the year, possibly of the decade. The campaign for the White House was already marred by bitter polarization, a president struggling to find his words and a former president’s felony conviction. Now, you can add blood and bullets to the mix.
Biden calls for calm: In a rare Oval Office address while you were sleeping, President Joe Biden addressed the attempted assassination of his campaign rival. “We cannot, we must not go down this road in America,” Biden said. “We’ve traveled it before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer.”
Biden’s appeal echoed calls from leaders around the world to lower the temperature of political rhetoric and avoid a spiral of political violence. (Roundup of European reaction here.)
Boiling point: But not everyone got the memo. Some Trump supporters, including Senator and vice presidential hopeful J.D. Vance and Georgia congressman Mike Collins laid the blame for the attack at Biden’s feet, while leftists decried the fact that shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks — about whom little is known beyond his Republican party registration and a history of being bullied in school — had failed to kill Trump. (Here’s what we do know about the suspect.)
Rage, unleashed: In this must-read piece, POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin writes about how some Trump allies, including members of his own family, voiced a sense of triumph rather than calling for peace. “The speed and intensity of the response … reflected the boiling anger so many Trump loyalists felt long before the former president gripped his right ear Saturday night,” Jonathan writes. “His supporters feel he has been pursued by the government in a manner befitting an exiled opposition leader and that, as Vance said, this was the inevitable outcome of America succumbing to Third World tactics.”
Widening gyre: Even as leaders called for calm, an ominous drumbeat was building. Gary O’Donoghue, a veteran BBC reporter who was at the scene of the shooting (and who is blind), described hearing the words “civil war” and “they shot first. This is [expletive] war” from rallygoers immediately after the shooter was killed by the Secret Service. Read his piece here.
Reality chasing fiction: The entire scene, including American flags and gunfire in a bucolic setting, recalled the atmosphere of casual mayhem prevalent in Alex Garland’s hit summer movie, “Civil War,” which imagines the United States split into two warring camps. Your Playbook author thought it was good cinema, but far-fetched. Now, it seems reality has inched one small step closer to Garland’s nightmare vision.
Not immune: The shockwave is also resonating powerfully in Europe where, despite strict gun laws and a premium on social welfare, political violence appears to be on the rise — as shown by the attempted killing of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, attacks against German and French politicians, and the news of a foiled assassination plot targeting the chief executive of German arms maker Rheinmetall.
Victory by bullet? Europe is also braced for any political fallout from the violence in the U.S., including the possibility that it could help Trump by widening his lead over a weakened Biden. While some pundits predicted Trump would benefit from his newfound status as a “living martyr,” others weren’t so sure. “It has been very difficult to budge the Trump/Biden polling. As shocking as this event was, the vast majority of voters have long made up their views about Trump and seem quite unlikely to change their minds because of his injury,” writes Vox.
What now? All eyes will be on the Republican National Convention, which kicks off today in Wisconsin. Trump allies said he was in high spirits last night. A host of unanswered questions will be swirling around the convention, as my U.S. colleagues write here and here. Why did the shooter target Trump? How did he get so close? How will the attempted assassination impact the presidential campaign? Will Trump use this week’s convention speech to make a broad appeal for unity? Will Democrats back off talking about Trump as a threat to democracy? And will the weekend’s events stall the moves to dump Biden from the ticket?
DRIVING THE DAY: VON DER LEYEN REELECTION
VON DER LEYEN WALKS TIGHTROPE AHEAD OF KEY VOTE: The stakes of Thursday’s European Parliament vote to confirm Ursula von der Leyen’s reelection bid were already sky-high amid war in Ukraine, political chaos in France and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “peace tour” that saw him shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Pressure on: After the attack on Trump, the stakes have ramped up even higher. Von der Leyen’s confirmation vote (which none other than Elon Musk has called “super important”) will either give a signal of stability and continuity — or throw the bloc into what can only be described as a political crisis.
Feeling the heat: Lawmakers who are preparing to cast their secret ballots at 1 p.m. on Thursday are aware of their role. “Putin is sitting in the Kremlin having the time of his life and now we have to decide: Do we confirm her or not?” German Greens lawmaker Daniel Freund told Playbook. “We’re all hyper-aware of the stakes.”
No plan B: That sense of trepidation permeates Brussels, all the way to the upper floors of the Berlaymont, where Eddy and I sat for lunch last Thursday with outgoing Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas. Asked what would happen if von der Leyen is rejected by MEPs, Schinas said: “There is only plan A. There is no plan B.” Pressed to indulge in some hypothetical thinking, the Greek official demurred, saying he didn’t even want to think about it. “Nobody does.”
Losers turned kingmakers: With so much riding on her confirmation, von der Leyen has cleared her schedule to hit the phones and lobby political groups and individual MEPs. As Eddy explains in a story out this morning, her reelection now lies mainly in the hands of the two camps that fared most poorly in the European Parliament election: The Greens and Renew Europe.
Stepping out: Von der Leyen can’t afford to rely solely on support from her own European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats and Renew — the three parties identified by EPP Chair Manfred Weber as being part of her reelection “coalition.”
Indeed, while those groups account for a collective 401 seats in Parliament, well above the 361 votes she needs to pass, experts assert that at least 10 percent of those lawmakers will not vote in her favor on Thursday. Add to that the risk that some MEPs may simply not show up and the outlook looks tricky indeed.
Confident: “I am not a mathematician but I think with the three center forces that are supporting Ursula von der Leyen and that form part of a package deal … we have the numbers,” Pedro López, spokesperson for the parliamentary faction of von der Leyen’s EPP family, said at a press conference Friday.
Take it or leave it: In one (unscientific) online poll run by the Cypriot Youtuber-turned-MEP Fidias Panayiotou, 85 percent of voters said they want him to vote “no” to von der Leyen’s reelection.
Facetime with the Greens: Wary of falling short, von der Leyen huddled last week for two hours with the Greens group in Parliament. She fielded detailed questions about her plans to apply the Green Deal and maintain pressure over the rule of law in the EU, a person present at the meeting told Playbook.
Pointing at Manfred: But the Greens are also disappointed that von der Leyen and the EPP haven’t engaged with them in four-way talks that could have yielded a written coalition agreement that would be a roadmap for her second term. “I would have preferred solid coalition talks,” said Freund.
Holding all cards: The Greens believe Weber, the chair of the EPP, has created a “blackmail situation,” whereby he keeps the Greens at arm’s length to give himself plenty of room to reject Green legislation down the line, possibly in collaboration with other right-wing parliamentary groups. “If a proposal on fertilizers comes to the Parliament, if he feels like ‘I’m not having it,’ he can just kill it. That’s the situation we are going into.”
Heavy lies the crown: “We have to decide if we are statesmanlike enough and pro-European enough to suck it up and support [von der Leyen] knowing this amounts to filling in a blank cheque,” Freund added.
Deal, what deal? Freund, who is behind a Parliament lawsuit challenging the Commission’s decision to grant Hungary €10 billion in frozen funds, noted Playbook’s reporting from last week on a “deal” to grant the money. Freund didn’t comment directly on Schinas’s remark, but said von der Leyen’s approach to rule of law matters was “an important element to judge the overall package on Thursday” — though it won’t “be the only thing she’s judged on.”
Bottom line: “We’re all aware how tight this vote is going to be,” he said. “We’re all aware of how different politicians in this house and around Europe are going to spin this election or not of von der Leyen. Do we feel it all hinges on us?”
Into the high grass: “Every single MEP’s vote will make the difference.”
HUNGARY CURVED
SCOOP — EU TO BOYCOTT HUNGARY’S FOREIGN AFFAIRS SUMMIT: Increasingly exasperated by Viktor Orbán’s continuous undermining of EU foreign policy, Brussels wants to take an unprecedented step to boycott his foreign affairs summit next month, my colleague Jakob Hanke Vela reports.
Enough trolling: Hungary, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, plans to host a foreign affairs summit in Budapest on August 28-29 — a prime opportunity for Orbán to try to set the agenda and for his Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó to stand in the limelight.
Who’s the boss: The plan is for foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell to summon the ministers to Brussels for a “formal” foreign affairs council at the same time, as two senior diplomats and a third EU diplomat told Jakob. “If there’s a formal foreign affairs council, organized by the high representative [Borrell] the same day, the ministers won’t be able to go to Budapest,” said one of them.
The plan has already been discussed informally with several EU countries, including France and Germany. On Wednesday, Borrell’s team will present the plan to the EU’s 27 permanent representatives.
Clear signal: After Orbán’s countless vetoes of aid for Ukraine and his self-styled peace visits to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, which he didn’t coordinate with his 26 counterparts, most of the other countries want to “send a clear signal that Hungary does not speak for the EU,” as another of the diplomats put it.
The EU’s reaction has been more bark than bite: At a meeting earlier this month, Hungary’s envoy to the EU, Bálint Ódor, was admonished by his colleagues, with Slovakia the only country not taking the floor. But the EU has so far failed to impose limits on Orbán’s trolling. By boycotting his foreign affairs summit, they are hoping to take the wind out of Orbán’s sails.
IN OTHER NEWS
WELCOME BACK, BRITAIN: Football isn’t “coming home” this time, but thanks to Keir Starmer’s new government the U.K. is coming a bit closer to its former home in the EU. Sorry, I’ll see myself out …
The U.K.’s new EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds travels to Brussels today for his first face-to-face meeting with Commission VP Maroš Šefčovič, per a statement from the U.K.’s mission to the EU. “The meeting aims to set the ground for further discussions between the U.K. and EU as the U.K. seeks to reset its relationship with the bloc,” the statement said.
Stay tuned: POLITICO will be on the ground at Blenheim Palace on Thursday to report on the first U.K. meeting of the European Political Community. On the menu: Brexit and a potential EU-U.K. defense pact.
How Starmer went down in Washington: The U.K.’s new PM was showered with praise and goodwill in meetings with Joe Biden, top White House officials and Democrats in Congress last week, my colleague Stefan Boscia reports. For Democrats gloomy about their chances of retaining the White House in November, Starmer right now is a rare beacon of hope for the center-left.
END OF THE FRENCH EXCEPTION: A fragmented election with no clear winner is typical for most EU countries. Can France learn to love the messy art of compromise? Giorgio Leali reports on the post-election uncertainty roiling Paris.
ALBANIAN MEP GRANTED PRISON LEAVE FOR INAUGURATION: Fredi Beleri, the ethnic Greek mayor-elect of the Albanian town of Himarë, who was elected MEP with Greece’s ruling New Democracy party, was granted temporary leave from an Albanian prison to attend the inaugural session of the European Parliament, Nektaria Stamouli writes in to report. He will fly to Athens on Monday and then transfer to Strasbourg. He will have to return to the Albanian prison following this week’s inaugural session.