Inside the struggle for PASOK’s future
In the high-stakes race for leadership of the socialist PASOK party, incumbent Nikos Androulakis and Athens Mayor Haris Doukas are gearing up for a decisive second round of voting this Sunday.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1250336/inside-the-struggle-for-pasoks-future
Draft 2025 budget tabled in parliament – Forecasts 2.3% growth, inflation at 2.1% and debt at 149.1% of GDP
The draft state budget for the year 2025 was tabled in Parliament on Monday for discussion in the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs.
Zacharaki presents policy framework for demographics and housing at the municipalities’ union KEDE
Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Sofia Zacharaki presented the Ministry’s key initiatives to address demographic challenges and housing policy at the relevant committee of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE).
Greek state to repay loans worth 8 billion euros ahead of time in December
Greece plans to repay Support Mechanism loans of nearly 8 billion euros in December, as revealed in the draft state budget for 2025 that National Economy Minister Kostis Hatzidakis tabled in Parliament on Monday.
ATHEX: National Bank dominates stock trading
National Bank remains the focus of attention for traders at the Greek stock market, with 62% of Monday’s bourse session turnover concerning the lender’s stock. The rest of the market did not show any particular buying activity, and only Coca-Cola HBC helped with its large capitalization containing the decline of the benchmark on the day.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1250362/athex-national-bank-dominates-stock-trading
KATHIMERINI: PASOK: the map of the second round
TA NEA: Public sector: the wages of 2025
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Grey zones in the “pothen eshes” [wealth origin declaration] of Kasselakis
RIZOSPASTIS: Strike rally for better wages, health and education
KONTRA NEWS: Alert in PASOK before the final stand-off
DIMOKRATIA: Draft budget 2025: increases, cuts and “gifts”
NAFTEMPORIKI: Introspection regarding the health indexes of blue chips
DRIVING THE DAY: HUNGARY GAMES
ORBÁN MEETS THE PRESS: Viktor Orbán, prime minister of Hungary and leader of the European Parliament’s third-largest group, is in Strasbourg. And his message appears to be: Come at me.
The main event is on Wednesday, when Orbán will formally present — after multiple delays — Budapest’s Council presidency program and parry with MEPs, in the presence of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Pre-game show: But first, Orbán will warm up with journalists. His team is planning an unusual two-hour press conference today, starting at 2:30 p.m.
Location, location, location: Notably, the press conference isn’t in one of the official rooms devoted to such briefings. A spokesperson for Orbán’s Patriots for Europe group explained to Playbook that those rooms can only be booked for 30 minutes. However, the press briefing rooms — which come with perks like a straightforward livestream system and ways to take questions from reporters off-site — also come with the understanding that only journalists will be allowed to ask questions, and attendees won’t cheer, boo, etc.
NOT A WARM WELCOME: Rival political groups are gearing up for a fight. A message from the European People’s Party — which had a concussive uncoupling with Orbán’s Fidesz in 2021 — pledged to “confront” the Hungarian prime minister. And Green MEP Daniel Freund is teaming up with Transparency International Hungary to promote an exhibition, “Where is our money, Mr. Orbán?” calling into question how Budapest spends EU funds.
ASYLUM EXEMPTION: Hungary has officially asked to opt out of the EU’s asylum and migration policies, following the Netherlands’ lead, Csongor Körömi and Šejla Ahmatović write in to report. While stressing that Hungary remains committed to the Schengen Area amid increasing border controls, Minister for European Affairs János Bóka emphasized the need for stronger national control over migration — despite the challenges of amending EU treaties.
MIGRATION
RAMPING UP “RETURNS”: On migration, at least, Hungary isn’t an outlier anymore. As Nick Vinocur and Barbara Moens report, EU leaders are pushing for quicker ways to deport people outside the EU. According to draft language for conclusions of the Oct. 17-18 European Council summit, leaders plan to press the Commission to write new guidelines for deportations to third countries.
“Paradigm shift” and punishment: A vague outline of a proposal committed to text (a “non-paper,” in EU-speak) floated by the Austrians and Dutch, and backed by 15 other Schengen-area countries, calls for a new attempt to revise the EU’s Returns Directive, the existing set of rules for deportations (a 2018 revision effort stalled out). A “paradigm shift” would place “obligations and duties” on the person facing potential deportation. That means punishments for “non-cooperation.”
MICHEL’S LEGACY
CHARLES MICHEL’S DIPLOMATIC BLITZ: With less than two months left in office, and no obvious political prospects at home in Belgium, European Council President Charles Michel is making a last-ditch effort to show off his international relations skills. In the coming week, he’ll put himself at the center of two of the EU’s thorniest geopolitical challenges.
HOSTING GULF LEADERS — INCLUDING QATARI EMIR: Just a day before EU27 leaders meet in Brussels for their EUCO, Michel will co-chair the EU-Gulf Coordination Council (GCC) summit in Brussels on Oct. 16. It’s the first such gathering to take place.
Don’t mention Qatargate! Doha currently holds the rotating GCC presidency, so Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani is the co-chair of the meeting. Other attendees will include EU27 leaders, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and heads of government or state from the six GCC countries.
Extensive prep: Michel traveled to the region to plan the summit with leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain in recent weeks. (Oman rounds out the list of GCC members.)
Don’t mention the dismembered journalist! Those prep meetings included a sit-down with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Aug. 28. Riyadh’s return to polite society after the Oct. 2, 2018 murder (with MBS’ approval) of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi is hardly breaking news; nonetheless, the crown prince will make headlines if he ends up attending the summit in Brussels.
Geopolitics … The escalating violence in the Middle East will certainly be on the agenda, according to a Council spokesperson, not to mention Russia’s war in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
… and trade: Among the priorities cited by a Council spokesperson: security cooperation; trade and investment; climate and energy issues (especially renewables); and the visa regime.
MEETING CHINA’S NO. 2 AMID EV ROW: Before he hosts the Gulf leaders in Brussels, Michel is set to attend the East Asia Summit in Laos this week — on Thursday and Friday — his spokesperson confirmed. Among a series of bilateral meetings, Michel is expected to meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang, just a week after the EU confirmed tariffs against Chinese-made electric vehicles, Stuart Lau writes in to report.
Heated climate: The tariffs could be a point of contention — even though, for now, Beijing appears to be focused on continuing to negotiate with the European Commission rather than retaliating against member countries. The Chinese military is also pondering a new round of drills around Taiwan. That move comes after Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivered an address on Thursday, saying it is “impossible” for the People’s Republic of China to become Taiwan’s motherland because Taiwan has older political roots, per Reuters.
HAMAS ATTACK ANNIVERSARY
VDL DEFENDS POST-OCT. 7 TRIP TO ISRAEL: European Commission PresidentUrsula von der Leyen on Monday night stood by her decision to visit Israel in the wake of last year’s Hamas massacres. “Just days after 7 October, I traveled to Israel, to show solidarity and support in the wake of the most hideous attack committed against Jews since the Shoah,” she told Belgium’s Jewish community and the families of victims and hostages at a one-year memorial event in the Great Synagogue of Brussels.
Political context: Von der Leyen, who met Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the visit, was criticized by political opponents after initially not publicly calling on Israel to respect international law in its war in Gaza.
Dressed in black: Von der Leyen, wearing all black with a yellow badge pinned to her jacket to symbolize support for the hostages in Gaza,spoke about what she saw at the Kfar Aza kibbutz, where Hamas militants killed scores of people. “I saw the burnt-out houses, the bullet holes in walls, I saw a baby seat covered with blood, everything was silent, but it felt like stones and trees were still screaming in horror,” she said. “It is time for the bloodshed to end,” von der Leyen added.
Hamas the root: Von der Leyen pinned the blame for the past year of violence squarely on Hamas. “Our thoughts are with all the innocent victims of the tragic chain of events that was set off by the terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7,” she said, adding that “all civilians must be protected,” as she made a wish for peace in Gaza, Israel and Lebanon and deescalation across the Middle East.
IN ATTENDANCE: Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas, Ukrainian Ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov, United Arab Emirates Ambassador Mohamed Al Sahlawi, Belgian MR party chief Georges-Louis Bouchez, Chief Rabbi of Brussels Albert Guigui, Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Idit Rosenzweig-Abu and Israeli Ambassador to the EU Haim Regev.
Hostage families were also there: Alon Nimrodi, the father of Tamir Nimrodi who is still being held hostage in Gaza, and Michel and Monique Tordjman, whose son Avidan was killed during the massacre at the Nova music festival.
ERDOĞAN EVOKES HOLOCAUST IN PRO-PALESTINE VIDEO: Also on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used imagery usually associated with the Nazi genocide of Jews in a call to action against the mass killings in Gaza.
Vision of 2040: Erdoğan posted a video on X imagining people around the world commemorating a future anniversary of the “tragic genocide” in Gaza, featuring a “Palestine Genocide Memorial” in Berlin and a museum exhibit of battered shoes. Children ask their elders accusingly why they didn’t do anything to stop it (English version).
Israel the root: “Today, I remember with sorrow the tens of thousands of people who have been massacred by the murderous Israeli government since October 7,” tweeted Erdoğan, leader of a NATO member country, making no mention of Hamas. “Just as Hitler was stopped by the common alliance of humanity, Netanyahu and his murder network will be stopped in the same way.” Erdoğan added that Turkey “will continue to stand against the Israeli government, no matter what the cost.”
BELGIAN AIRLIFT: Belgium will send a plane to Beirut with medical equipment, said Hadja Lahbib, its foreign minister and European commissioner-designate. Belgians and other Europeans will be offered the chance to get a lift out of Lebanon on the plane on Wednesday.
EU BUDGET
REGIONS REBEL AGAINST BUDGET PLAN: The European project will be “put in jeopardy” if the Commission takespowers to dictate how EU funds should be spent away from local bodies, the bloc’s regions chief Vasco Alves Cordeiro said.
Quick refresher: The EU executive is floating plans to linkmoney disbursed from its next long-termbudget, which runs from 2028-2034, to how well countries implement key economic reforms, POLITICO scooped over the weekend.
Sinking the trial balloon: Officials outside of Brussels are eager to shoot the plan down.“It is a stupid idea,” one EU diplomat told Carlo Martuscelli, that would “weaken the role of regions.”
IT’S THE (GERMAN) ECONOMY, STUPID
Shot: German industrial woes deepen with sharpest fall in orders since January.
Chaser: Lindner says Germany’s economic model “is not broken.”
COURT REPORTS
PARLIAMENT’S €300,000 BILL TO JEAN-MARIE LE PEN: The European Parliament wants the former chief of France’s National Front to pay back more than €300,000 for improper expenses reimbursements during his time as an MEP between 2009 and 2018, AFP reports. Line items include virtual reality glasses and 129 bottles of wine. Le Pen is appealing to the EU’s General Court.
HAPPENING TODAY: The European Court of Human Rights will issue its ruling in the Severin v. Romania case, concerning the fairness of criminal proceedings against Adrian Severin for allegedly taking bribes when he was an MEP.
NEW AT THE CJEU: Six new judges joined the Court of Justice of the European Union on Monday, including Ben Smulders for the Netherlands, formerly DG COMP’s top state aid official. They will serve until 2030. Stéphane Gervasoni of France joins the top court after a stint at the General Court. Five other judges had their terms renewed for six years.
New advocates general: Dean Spielmann, a Luxembourger who was previously a judge at the General Court and the European Court of Human Rights, joins Italian academic Andrea Biondi and Rimvydas Norkus, ex-president of Lithuania’s Supreme Court, as new advocates general. Jean Richard de la Tour‘s term was renewed.
General Court: Hervé Cassagnabere and Raphaël Meyer replace Gervasoni and Spielmann as General Court judges.
IN OTHER NEWS
PROTESTS AGAINST RAMA IN ALBANIA: The conservative opposition in Albania held nationwide protests on Monday, demanding a technocratic caretaker Cabinet ahead of next year’s election. They accused Prime Minister Edi Rama’s leftist government of electoral manipulation and judiciary usurpation and called for the release of former Prime Minister Sali Berisha from house arrest, the Associated Press reports.
GEORGIA LATEST: Shalva Papuashvili, the speaker of Georgia’s parliament from the ruling Georgian Dream party, said lawmakers would move to impeach President Salome Zourabichvili ahead of a parliamentary election on Oct. 26. The grounds for the move will be visits the pro-Western president made overseas that Papuashvili said the government hadn’t authorized — the same accusations Georgian Dream directed at Zourabichvili in a failed impeachment attempt last year.
OUT AND A BOUT: Remember Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” whom Moscow managed to exchange in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner? Well, he’s back — brokering a deal with the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, Western officials tell the New York Times.
COP CALL: Western nations should use this year’s COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan to pressure Baku over its “vicious crackdown” on journalists, opposition figures and activists, leading human rights organizations say in a report published today. Write-up here.
CHINA ORDERS PUBLIC SERVANTS AND TEACHERS TO HAND IN THEIR PASSPORTS: Chinese authorities are demanding schoolteachers and other public sector employees hand in their passports in multiple cities, as Xi Jinping tightens his grip on the country, the FT reports.