President Sakellaropoulou: ‘The courage and unity of purpose of the heroes of 1940 a valuable legacy’
“The national anniversary of the glorious “NO” is a day of memory, honour and responsibility toward those who fought and sacrificed themselves for our freedom,” President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou said on Monday, in a statement immediately after the conclusion of the grand military parade in Thessaloniki.
New Democracy’s lead over PASOK narrows to 7.6 points, new poll shows
A poll released on Friday shows that the ruling New Democracy (ND) party’s lead over PASOK has narrowed to 7.6 points. The MRB survey for OPEN TV places New Democracy in the lead with 21.7%, followed by PASOK at 14.1%. The nationalist Greek Solution party ranks third with 8.5%, while the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) closely follows at 7.5%. SYRIZA is in fifth place with 6.4%.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1251963/new-democracys-lead-over-pasok-narrows-to-7-6-points
EU green-lights state grant for Prinos carbon storage unit
The European Commission on Monday approved a 150-million-euro initiative funded through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) for the construction of a carbon storage facility in Prinos in Kavala, northern Greece.
14 hospitalized after suspected carbon monoxide leak in northern Greece hotel
Fourteen people exhibited symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning on Sunday morning at a hotel in the village of Limnochori, Florina, in northern Greece. According to local reports, all 14 individuals, some of whom were unconscious, were transported to hospital with respiratory issues, likely due to a carbon monoxide leak from the hotel’s heating system.
ATHEX: Benchmark tumbles to 11-week low
The Greek stock market completed an entire week of losses for its benchmark, with its fresh drop on Friday sending the main index below the 1,400-point mark and to lows unseen since August 9. The credit sector was once more at the forefront of sales, before the issue of the third-quarter results and as European concerns about the US election on November 5 increase.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1251964/athex-benchmark-tumbles-to-11-week-low
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: Turmoil within New Democracy: Who is going to press the button?
TO VIMA: The Presidential election will be the catalyst for the ruling party’s future
REAL NEWS: New discord by Erdogan
PROTO THEMA: “Carousel” racket in Athens and Thessaloniki
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: Corrupt state employees: The Black Bible
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: More open fronts for the PM
KONTRA NEWS: Why the PM’s office is gambling with the Novartis case
DIMOKRATIA: Warum, herr Steinmeier?
NAFTEMPORIKI: “Roadmap” for nuclear energy in Greece
DRIVING THE DAY: GEORGIA ON THE EDGE
UNCERTAINTY AFTER DISPUTED VOTE: The Republic of Georgia’s pro-EU opposition seems to be at a loss about its next moves after suffering a severe defeat in a heavily disputed election. Beyond demanding a new government, the options look bleak.
Symbolic boycott = ceding influence? The leader of the “Unity — National Movement” coalition pledged to boycott the formation of a new parliament. But that could mean handing the pro-Kremlin Georgian Dream the absolute rule it was working toward.
Waning protests: Tens of thousands took to the Tbilisi streets on Monday evening to demand new elections, many waving EU and Georgian flags — but the crowds were smaller than at protests called by civil society groups against authoritarian legislation over the summer. Opposition leaders dispersed the protesters, saying they would decide on further action in the coming days.
EU SIMMER APPROACHES BOIL: It took a while, but the response from Europe grew more forceful and coherent throughout Monday.
At midday, during the Commission’s press briefing, EU foreign policy spokesperson Nabila Massrali noted the charges of “harsh anti-EU rhetoric” and misinformation during the Georgian election campaign, adding that Brussels would “closely monitor the evolving situation.”
Once more, with feeling: Later that afternoon, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered a similar message, but more emphatically: “For so many years now, the people of Georgia have been striving and fighting for democracy. They have a right to know what happened this weekend,” she said in a speech at the College of Europe. “They have a right to see that electoral irregularities are investigated swiftly, transparently and independently. Georgians, like all Europeans, must be masters of their own destiny.”
Capitals’ rapid response: EU27 government ministers aren’t slated to discuss the Georgia election until their Foreign Affairs Council in mid-November. Yet half the capitals managed to band together for a rapid response. In an effort led by Germany, EU affairs ministers from countries including France, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal demanded “an impartial inquiry of complaints and remedy of the violations established.”
“The violations of electoral integrity are incompatible with the standards expected” of EU candidate countries, the joint statement said, adding that fair elections are “integral to any progress on Georgia’s EU path.” (The EU already froze Georgia’s accession process earlier this year in response to rule-of-law backsliding.)
How did we get this far without mentioning Orbán? Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was quick to congratulate Georgian Dream on its victory and showed up in Tbilisi on Monday. “Georgia is a conservative, Christian and pro-Europe state,” Orbán said in a post on X. “Instead of useless lecturing, they need our support on their European path.”
His trip was condemned in other capitals. “We criticize Prime Minister Orbán’s premature visit to Georgia,” said the German-initiated statement. “He does not speak on behalf of the EU.”
COLD WATER POINT 1: Sure, powerful EU countries banded together quickly to disavow Orbán in a press release. But the bottom line is that he’s the only EU figure who bothered to show up, notes Ben Stanley, an associate professor at the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Poland’s SWPS University. “Where are representatives of the EU? Why aren’t they shirtfronting him in Tbilisi?”
COLD WATER POINT 2: The EU might be boiling mad, but the U.S. is already serving up sanctions against Georgian Dream, and key Washington lawmakers are threatening to cook up more.
Global journalism: From Tbilisi to Brussels and beyond to Washington, read the full article from a Transatlantic team of POLITICO reporters: Gabriel Gavin, Dato Parulava, Eric Bazail-Eimil, Maggie Miller and Robbie Gramer.
MEANWHILE, IN ROMANIA: The country is gearing up for presidential and parliamentary elections that will be closely watched in Brussels because of Romania’s strategic proximity to Ukraine. But, as my colleague Una Hajdari reports, the elections are pulling back the curtain on some of the uglier tendencies in Romanian politics.
DIG DEEPER: POLAND & HUNGARY
BEHIND THE DIVORCE: Poland’s EU affairs minister signed the joint statement we noted above criticizing Orbán — a big turnaround since the heady days of the Budapest-Warsaw bad boys’ club. Sure, the Hungarian prime minister’s soft stance on Russia has caused fissures with Warsaw since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
But now the split is complete. With the far-right PiS out of power in Poland, Orbán has no affinity for a government led by center-right leader Donald Tusk.
Superlative sanctimony: “The Poles are pursuing the most sanctimonious and hypocritical policy in the whole of Europe,” Orbán said in a speech in July, adding that he had “not seen a policy of such rank hypocrisy in Europe in the last 10 years.”
A long time ago, they used to be friends: The irony, reports my colleague Csongor Körömi, is that back in 2010, Orbán used to be even tighter with Tusk than with PiS leaders. They were both in the EPP, both cut their teeth as anti-communist activists, and both loved football.
Fast forward: By 2019, Orbán was Brussels’ top internal antagonist while Tusk was head of the EPP — which suspended Orbán’s Fidesz. Read about the full saga from Csongor.
Still split with PiS: An X post Monday from Polish President Andrzej Duda, a member of PiS, didn’t mention Orbán, but it was a reminder of the persistent rift with his previous allies when it comes to Russian influence. Noting that he had just spoken with Georgia’s pro-EU President Salome Zourabichvili, Duda called the post-election situation “deeply concerning” and pledged “Poland’s unwavering support for the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the Georgian nation.”
BUT THE KYIV-WARSAW RELATIONSHIP ALSO ISN’T WITHOUT STRAIN: Ukraine should exhume and rebury ethnic Poles massacred on its territory, Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told the FT in an interview. “People are entitled to a Christian burial, and it doesn’t affect Ukraine’s war effort,” Sikorski said.
RUSSIA’S WAR
NORTH KOREA’S LOVE BOMB TO PUTIN: North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia are now in Kursk, the Russian region partly controlled by Ukrainian troops, NATO chief Mark Rutte told reporters Monday following a meeting with South Korea’s top intelligence officials.
NATO’s warning: That marks “a significant escalation in [Pyongyang’s] ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war” and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war,” Rutte said. He didn’t mention numbers, but South Korea estimated that up to 10,000 North Korean soldiers would be in Russia by December.
More than 3,000 of them are already on the ground and training, the Ukrainian military said Monday, citing information from locals in the Kursk region. They’re joined by North Korean Embassy employees helping with translation, according to the press release.
And guess who’s en route to Moscow? North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choi Son Hee, per the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang.
From denial to gaslighting: Pyongyang has previously dismissed NATO’s claims. A North Korean representative to the U.N. told Reuters the reports were “groundless rumors.” But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov now says that if anyone is surprised, it’s their own fault. He pointed to a security and defense treaty signed by Moscow and Pyongyang in June. “We have said many times that the treaty is not secret, it is public, the entire text has been published, and it in no way violates any provisions of international law,” Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow. Stuart Lau and Eva Hartog have the full story.
EU READY FOR NEW DEAL WITH SEOUL: Ursula von der Leyen weighed in on Monday, following a call with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. She announced the “imminent launch” of a “timely” new EU-South Korea Security and Defence Partnership, whose “logic [is] more valid than ever.”
PENTAGON NOT BOTHERED ABOUT UKRAINE KILLING NORTH KOREANS WITH US WEAPONS: Is the U.S. concerned about the potential for Ukrainian forces to use American weapons to kill North Koreans — and does it plan to place further restrictions on Kyiv to prevent that from happening? No, according to the Pentagon’s Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh. If North Korean troops move to the front lines, “they are co-belligerents in the war,” Singh said during a press briefing on Monday. “This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”
NORDICS BACK ZELENSKYY VISION: Meanwhile, Nordic countries collectively endorsed Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory plan after meeting with the Ukrainian president in Iceland on Monday, agreeing to boost cooperation in defense production and humanitarian efforts, Playbook’s Šejla Ahmatović reports.
“When it comes to supporting Ukraine, Europe needs to further step up its political, its military, its economic and its humanitarian support,” said Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson at a press conference Monday evening with counterparts from Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.
RUSSIAN SPY DISGUISED AS U.N. STAFFER: Ukraine’s Security Service arrested a 34-year-old man for allegedly spying for Russia while impersonating a U.N. volunteer in the Donetsk region. He reportedly gathered intelligence on Ukrainian military positions, facilitating Russian attacks on Pokrovsk. The U.N. is cooperating with the investigation into the incident, Ketrin Jochecová reports.
RULE OF LAW QUICK HITS
BUDAPEST CONDEMNS INVESTIGATIVE OUTLET: Hungary’s Protection of Sovereignty Office — which the European Commission is challenging in court over breaches of human rights — accused investigative outlet Atlatszo of threatening national sovereignty. (H/t hvg.hu’s Viktória Serdült.)
MIRROR MIRROR ON THE LAW: The Commission publishes an annual rule of law report critiquing the capitals — but how is Brussels doing? Researchers have written the “missing chapter.”
1 WEEK TO THE US ELECTION
TRUMP LATEST: “I’m not a Nazi. I’m the opposite of a Nazi,” Donald Trump assured fans at a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s part of an attempt to wave off the ongoing criticism of the weekend’s Madison Square Garden rally, where comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made a series of racist slurs. The incident is hurting Trump’s chances with voters of Puerto Rican background in the swing state of Pennsylvania, my Stateside colleagues report.
HARRIS LATEST: Over in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris put abortion rights at the center of her campaign. Adam Wren concludes that Harris won the day — but Lisa Kashinsky reports on fears among Democrats that Harris’ hammering of Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric is falling flat.
WHAT WASHINGTON’S TALKING ABOUT: Jeff Bezos defended the Washington Post’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in decades. The move at the Bezos-owner paper triggered several high-profile resignations and around 8 percent of subscribers have canceled their orders.
WHAT PHILADELPHIA IS TALKING ABOUT: On Monday, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit to block a political action committee, controlled by billionaire Elon Musk, from awarding $1 million to registered U.S. voters in battleground states before the election. Reuters has more.
TOP READ: “Everything is subservient to the big guy” — longtime Russia expert and former Trump adviser Fiona Hill explains why Musk, Putin and Trump are all talking to each other.
THE EU ANGLE: Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico will visit China from this Thursday to Nov. 5 (the day of U.S. presidential election) and he’s expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing’s foreign ministry said Monday. Fico’s trip was postponed after an assassination attempt on the PM.
THE UK ANGLE: My colleague Emilio Casalicchio traveled to the crucial swing state of Georgia, where he found gun-toting, Trump-backing British-U.S. dual nationals. Fiona Bagley, born in Epsom, owns an English goods store, a quaint tea room, two deadly crossbows and an AK-47 assault rifle; she calls Trump “obnoxious” and “brash” — but she reckons “the man knows how to run a country.” Read Emilio’s dispatch here.
PERSONNEL NEWS
KLUGE SET TO RETURN AS CONTINENTAL HEALTH CHIEF: Belgium’s Hans Kluge is expected to be nominated for a second term as director of the World Health Organization’s European Region, as the global health body kicks off its annual meeting in Copenhagen today. After helping steer the 53-country region through Covid, the Belgian medical doctor is running unopposed for a second mandate, set to start in February.
LANDSBERGIS BOWS OUT: Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis is planning to take a break from politics after his party lost the second round of parliamentary elections Sunday. He will leave his role as foreign minister after the new government is formed. More here.
ICC INVESTIGATION LATEST: The International Criminal Court’s top prosecutor Karim Khan denied allegations of sexual misconduct and asked the ICC’s Independent Oversight Mechanism to investigate the claims. Khan has also requested an inquiry into “disinformation” surrounding the case. The BBC has the story.
IN OTHER NEWS
STATE OF THE GERMAN ECONOMY: Volkswagen is for the first time in its 87-year history planning to close production sites in its home market of Germany. More here.
MIDDLE EAST LATEST: CIA Director Bill Burns floated a modified cease-fire and hostage release deal at a meeting with Israeli and Qatari officials on Sunday, Axios reports. The proposal, which would involve a 28-day pause in the conflict, Hamas releasing eight hostages and Israel handing over dozens of Palestinian prisoners, is intended to unlock a broader agreement, but a deal is unlikely before the U.S. election.
ISRAEL BANS UNWRA: International condemnation of the Israeli parliament passing legislation to ban the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency from operating in Israel was growing last night as all eyes were on how — or if — Western allies would respond. The BBC has the latest details.
IRAN EXECUTES GERMAN DUAL NATIONAL: German-Iranian Jamshid Sharmahd, who was sentenced to death by the Iranian regime on terror charges, was executed on Monday in Tehran. Sharmahd, a dual citizen, was believed to have been abducted under mysterious circumstances from Dubai in 2020. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the execution “a scandal that I condemn in the strongest possible terms.” CDU leader Friedrich Merz called for the Iranian ambassador to Germany to be expelled in response. DW has more.
NEXT CHAPTER IN EU-CHINA ROW: Gird yourself for the relationship between the EU and China to get even frostier under the second von der Leyen Commission: Stuart Lau takes a look at how critical the incoming commissioners are on Beijing.
U.K. goes the other way: Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told my colleague Graham Lanktree he’s “open” to reviving a key trade dialogue with China.
But not to worry … Thanks to Brexit, the U.K. is now “largely irrelevant” on the world stage, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell tells Encompass Editor Paul Adamson in a new episode of his podcast.