Indictment of former ministers reaches Parliament
A motion filed by the main opposition party, the socialist PASOK, to indict former transport minister Kostas Karamanlis on felony charges over the deadly Tempe railway crash is expected to dominate the political agenda this week.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1270103/indictment-of-former-ministers-reaches-parliament
Prosecutor orders investigation into alleged Acropolis drone light show
The Athens Prosecutor’s Office has ordered an urgent preliminary investigation into a controversial drone light show that allegedly used the Parthenon as a dramatic backdrop for an Adidas advertising campaign.
4.5 Richter tremor jolts Evia
A 4.5-magnitude earthquake was recorded early on Monday – at 03:23 – three kilometers east of the village of Prokopi in Evia, or 86 kilometers north-northwest of the capital, according to data from the Geodynamic Institute of the National Observatory of Athens.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/904758/45-Richter-tremor-jolts-Evia
Fitch revises Greece’s outlook to positive; affirms at ‘BBB-‘
Fitch Ratings has revised the Outlook on Greece’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to Positive from Stable and affirmed the IDR at ‘BBB-‘.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/904473/Fitch-revises-Greeces-outlook-to-positive-affirms-at-BBB-rn
ATHEX: Metlen helps index to 15-year high
Metlen jumped 4.13% and led the main index of the Greek stock market above the 1,800-point psychological milestone on Friday to register yet another 15-year high. The annual “sell in May and go away” motto appears not to hold true this year for Athinon Avenue, which is going from strength to strength, as its benchmark has now grown by over 22% since the beginning of the year.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1269956/athex-metlen-helps-index-to-15-year-high
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: US has its eye on Greek ports
TO VIMA: Strictly unimplementable
REAL NEWS: The noose tightens regarding migration
PROTO THEMA: Poll: Everyone agrees to lifting the “permanent” status of public employees
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: Cadastre platform will allow corrections with simple online procedures
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: “Green” profiteering in electricity
KONTRA NEWS: Changes in government prior to New Democracy’s party convention
DIMOKRATIA: Former PM Samaras is ready to create a new party
NAFTEMPORIKI: Deep interventions in the “deep” state
DRIVING THE DAY: ELECTION BONANZA
PRO-EU CANDIDATES PREVAIL IN POLAND, ROMANIA: Europhiles can exhale today: Pro-EU candidate Nicușor Dan won Romania’s presidential election runoff, while over in Poland, liberal candidate Rafał Trzaskowski looks set to prevail in the first round of the presidential vote there, per exit polls.
Simion swings — and misses: The biggest headline is in Romania, where nationalist candidate George Simion had set the EU establishment on edge by winning big in the first round. (Here’s our cover story on the Romanian disruptor, by Max Griera, Csongor Körömi and yours truly, in case you missed it.)
Meet the winner: Bucharest Mayor Dan is a soft-spoken mathematics whizz and centrist who said the result represented a moment of hope for his country. “Elections are about communities — and in today’s elections a community of Romanians who want profound change in Romania won,” he said. Read our election night story here by Tim Ross, Carmen Paun and Andrei Popoviciu.
Congrats: European Council President António Costa posted his congratulations to Dan on Sunday shortly after 11 p.m.: “This is a strong signal of Romanians’ attachment to the European project,” he wrote.
Not so happy: Tristan Tate, brother of notorious manosphere influencer Andrew Tate. “Well Romania we had a good run. Thanks for the pleasant memories,” wrote Tristan on social media. Write-up here.
Zoom in: Per Milan Nič, a senior fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, a major factor in Dan’s win was support from Romania’s ethnic Hungarians, who “turned out massively against the nationalist/sovereignist candidate support by [Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orbán.”
Crisis averted: Simion initially declared himself the winner (as he predicted he would be during a stop-and-chat at POLITICO’s Brussels office last week), saying in a social media post last night: “I am the new president.” But hours later, he posted a video on Facebook congratulating Dan and admitting defeat. “He won the elections. It was the Romanian people’s will,” Simion said about Dan’s victory.
Remind you of anyone? Simion is a self-styled MAGA-ite who initially seemed to be taking a page from Donald Trump’s playbook by 1) calling himself the victor before all votes were counted and 2) refusing to accept the election outcome.
So why the back-pedaling? Simion’s problem was that the result wasn’t that close — with almost all polling stations counted in the early hours of this morning, Dan had won 53.8 percent to 46.2 percent for Simion. Turnout was 65 percent, the highest since 1996.
Hindsight: Simion’s early victory lap in Brussels, where he traveled in between rounds instead of campaigning until the bitter end, is looking, ahem, ill-considered in the cold light of day.
NOW OVER TO POLAND: It looks like another W for the EU camp with Warsaw Mayor Trzaskowski, the liberal candidate backed by Donald Tusk’s center-right Civic Platform, leading right-wing rival Karol Nawrocki in the first round of the presidential election, Wojciech Kósć reports from Warsaw.
This one is a lot closer, with Trzaskowski set to squeak by on 31.2 percent of the vote versus 29.7 for his rival Nawrocki, according to a late poll released at 2 a.m. The vote counts were coming in as Playbook was going to pixel in the early hours of this morning, with final results expected later today.
Inhale again? The forecast win is narrower than POLITICO’s Poll of Polls suggested it would be, meaning Trzaskowski must now widen his appeal to a wider electorate. “We’re going to see pretty much cacophonous signals to all possible voters of other candidates bar Nawrocki,” Bartosz Rydliński, a political scientist at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, told Wojciech.
Stay tuned: The runoff round is scheduled for June 1.
BUCKLE UP — WE’RE OFF TO PORTUGAL: In a snap parliamentary election on Sunday, Portugal’s center-right Democratic Alliance coalition won the most votes while the far-right Chega surged to tie with the Socialist Party as the second-largest force in the country’s parliament.
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s coalition is set to control 89 seats in the country’s parliament — falling well short of the 116 needed for a governing majority. But it was Pedro Nuno Santos’ Socialist Party that voters appear to hold responsible for forcing an election many considered to be unnecessary, Aitor Hernandez-Morales writes in to report: The party lost 20 seats and will have just 58 lawmakers in the legislature.
Can’t stop Chega: The night’s big winner was Chega, which surged to 58 seats, equaling the Socialists. The ultranationalist group’s performance confirms its seemingly unstoppable growth in Portugal, where it has gone from just one lawmaker in parliament in 2019 to becoming the third-largest party in last year’s election — and now controlling a quarter of the seats in the country’s legislative body.
Caveat: The tie between Chega and the Socialists could still be broken when overseas votes are counted.
What happens now: Montenegro has ruled out any sort of governing agreement with Chega, which means forming a minority government will likely require tacit support from the center left. Get the full picture on Portugal’s big election night from Aitor here.
The bottom line: This was a big night for Europe, offering some hope that the volatile state of global affairs is pushing voters toward stability, rather than disruption. But it’s all still to play for.
EU-UK SUMMIT
TALKS GO DOWN TO THE WIRE AHEAD OF EU-U.K. SUMMIT: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are getting ready to sign their names on a major agreement to tighten relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom, nearly nine years after the U.K. voted to leave the EU.
What’s on the menu: Three documents are being cooked up, the most prominent of which is a defense and security agreement that would potentially give the U.K. access to European arms procurement deals. Diplomats are also working on a joint declaration spelling out shared views on foreign policy, Ukraine and free trade. Finally, there’s a putative document on trade that aims to simplify visas and try to cut Brexit friction.
When to watch: This is all supposed to be done by 12:30 p.m. U.K. time, when von der Leyen and Starmer are due to hold a joint press conference.
Suspense: As of Sunday night the whole package wasn’t quite sewn up. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” quipped two EU diplomats independently of one another, having apparently been inspired by the same book of famous EU quotes. Diplomats wrapped up down-to-the-wire talks around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday with plans to reconvene at 8 a.m. today to iron out final ripples, one EU diplomat said.
What’s in contention: Not the security and defense aspect — largely done before the weekend. Neither is youth mobility, despite some static during talks. The only unresolved matters going into today’s talks are fisheries and sanitary and phytosanitary measures, per another EU diplomat — the Loch Ness monster of Brexit talks, if you will.
Calling it: One diplomat guessed that the talks would go until the “very last moment” but get resolved with the fishing arrangements extended for a minimum of 10 years.
Indeed, fisheries have been holding up the EU-U.K. defense pact for months, with France playing hardball to obtain concessions from London. It remains to be seen if the two sides can reach a deal, but two EU diplomats were optimistic, with one saying: “There are professionals around the table.” Alright then.
What more to watch: The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas will be on the BBC’s Today program at 8:15 a.m. U.K. time. Leaders including Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa, Kallas and Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič arrive around 10:15 a.m. at Lancaster House for bilateral talks, along with Starmer and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Take a step back: This isn’t the return of the U.K. into the European Union, but it is a major shift away from the Brexit-dominated politics of the last decade. Labour isn’t willing to relitigate Brexit with a do-over referendum (even with 55 percent of voters telling pollsters leaving the bloc was a mistake), but signing on for a defense partnership and visa liberalization as well as settling the longstanding issue of fisheries would mark a giant step closer together between these former partners.
Who’s winning? If you’re in Brussels, it’s tempting to say the U.K. was forced back to the table amid a rockier transatlantic relationship and a volatile global security environment. Starmer’s government realized the country is better off with close partners in its neighborhood, one might say. The Ukraine crisis has seen the U.K. behaving as a de-facto EU member, present at all high-level meetings. This is just sealing the deal.
If you’re in London, you’ll zoom in on the fine print to argue the U.K. actually hasn’t ceded much in these talks. It potentially gains access to Europe’s defense procurement market at the price of letting in more (mostly well-to-do) European students and giving a bit of latitude on fishing. The key thing: being able to tell Brexiteers the U.K. is still master of its own fate, especially with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party making strides in the polls.
The bottom line: A scarier world is making the U.K. and Europe do the obvious thing: get closer together. How close they’re willing to go will be revealed in the wording of documents published today.
DON’T MISS: Our big guide to the summit, courtesy of Jon Stone.
UKRAINE-RUSSIA
HAPPENING TODAY: Donald Trump will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin today at 3 p.m. Brussels time about stopping the “bloodbath” in Ukraine — “and trade,” he announced on his Truth Social platform. Trump added that he’d speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “and leaders of various NATO countries” after his call with Putin. Write-up here.
Coordination: Ahead of today’s call, Trump spoke with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, U.K. PM Keir Starmer and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. They conveyed the “need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously,” according to the U.K. account of their conversations.
Good luck with that: Bloomberg reports that Putin is unlikely to offer anything significant to Trump. That’s because the Russian president is going into the call believing he has the upper hand, confident his troops can take full control by the end of the year of the four Ukrainian regions Moscow wants to capture.
MORE ON UKRAINE — JUST IN: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned in an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation that U.S. Congress could move ahead with sanctions on Russia if Putin doesn’t stop the war.
Not us! Taking care to put the responsibility on the Senate rather than on President Trump, Rubio said there would be little the White House could do to stop a march toward sanctions.
What he said: “Congress, and particularly the Republicans in the House and Senate have tried to give the president space and time to negotiate something here. But we’ve advised the Russians repeatedly now for almost two months that this was coming if no progress was made. So I think that’s just coming to fruition now,” Rubio told the program.
ICYMI: Republican Senator and Trump ally Lindsey Graham has proposed 500 percent tariffs on Russian exports in the event the president’s efforts to strike a peace deal fail. Trump so far hasn’t moved on tariff threats (even as he tariffed the rest of the world), but Rubio’s signaling hints he could pin the blame on Congress.
BACK IN EUROPE — CALL TO ENGAGE WITH BRICS ON UKRAINE: It’s time for Europe to expand its diplomatic efforts and start engaging with BRICS nations — Brazil, India, China, etc — to bring an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine. That’s the call being led by Austria today in a letter addressed to Kaja Kallas.
In exclusive comments to POLITICO, AustrianForeign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said: “We need a global alliance for a ceasefire. Ukraine has shown repeatedly it is ready for this. Now it is up to Russia to stop its indiscriminate attacks. Europe cannot stand aside: Together with partner states, we must increase the pressure and bring Russia to the negotiating table.”
What the letter says, per a draft we’ve seen: “It is timelier than ever to renew and intensify our engagement with global partners … Many countries maintain close ties with Moscow, which could and should be leveraged to increase diplomatic pressure on Moscow … We ask you [Kallas] to lead the way in coordinating a renewed targeted and joint diplomatic effort, and suggest having a discussion in the upcoming Foreign Affairs Council.”
One more: The process “must take into account the specific concerns of the countries in those regions.”
15 countries: The letter was being finalized as Playbook was being written but had already obtained the signatures of 14 countries plus Austria, per a diplomat. It will be sent to Kallas later today ahead of a Foreign Affairs Council taking place on Tuesday.
Who’s in: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Austria.
Why it matters: After three years of war and a failed peace summit in Turkey, some EU countries want to think outside the box to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, even if that means engaging with countries that have either sided with Moscow or proclaimed dubious neutrality. The leaders of both China and Brazil attended Putin’s “Victory Day” parade on May 9, with Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva going so far as to hug his host in Moscow.
Not exactly Ukraine’s natural allies. Austria argues that Europe needs to engage with these countries in the hope they can convince Moscow to stop its assault on Ukraine. Only countries Russia knows and trusts can have any influence on Putin, the argument goes.
Stay tuned for FAC coverage in coming days.
POPE LEO BRINGS A THAW
MELONI DOES VICTORY LAP AFTER ROME LOVE-FEST: How’s this for photo op: Giorgia Meloni sitting between U.S. Vice President JD Vance and European Commission President von der Leyen in Rome, positioning herself as the “bridge” between the two sides as they met in Rome for Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration.
Mellowing on Europe: Vance, who shocked European audiences with his broadside against the bloc last year, struck a much more conciliatory note on the way into his meetings, saying he was hopeful about “long-term trade advantages” between the EU and U.S.
Cashing it in: Meloni didn’t miss the opportunity to claim credit for the meeting, posting on social media that “Italy intends to do its part to relaunch the dialogue between the European Union and the United States: two entities called to face together the great global challenges.” Read the full write-up here by Koen Verhelst.
Vance meets Zelenskyy: Vance also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — their first face-to-face encounter since the infamous Oval Office blow-up.
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IN OTHER NEWS
FRANCE’S RETAILLEAU WINS CONSERVATIVE CROWN: French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is the new crown prince of France’s main conservative party, Les Républicains, after winning a party election on Sunday, Victor Goury-Laffont reports. The win puts him in good stead to make a bid for the French presidency in 2027.
Revenge of the accountant: Retailleau, a staunch conservative likely to push the party further to the right, has seen his popularity skyrocket since joining the government in September. He was widely expected to unseat current Les Républicains leader Laurent Wauquiez, who ran for reelection.
Back from the dead? Les Républicains have been a quasi-zombie political formation since their implosion in the wake of Emmanuel Macron’s rise to power in 2017. Retailleau’s victory could mark the first step toward a comeback for his party.
MOVE FAST, SLASH RED TAPE, SAYS KUBILIUS: The European Commission’s defense czar sits down today with industry representatives as part of an “implementation dialogue” to simplify and beef up the EU’s defense industry, Andrius Kubilius lui-même told my colleagues at Morning Defense.
Ready by 2030, or bust: The dialogue “is our first roundtable with industry and labor on Europe’s defense readiness,” he said. The consultation should next month give rise to a proposal on how to simplify procurement processes, aka the Defense Omnibus. “By 2030, Europe must be strong enough to deter any armed aggression on its soil.” To get there, “we have to move fast and clear the path: slash red tape, cut unnecessary costs, end fragmentation, and fix the rules,” he said.
DEFENSE SPENDING IS SURGING. CAN IT SAVE EUROPE’S ECONOMY? With Europe about to unleash a flood of money into its defense sector, hopes are high that the wall of money could kickstart some much-needed growth in the bloc. But is that realistic, or just wishful thinking? Carlo Martuscelli dives in here.
TALKING COMPETITIVENESS WITH MÎNZATU: POLITICO sits down today with Commission Executive Vice President Roxana Mînzatu to discuss competitiveness in the EU. The interview will zoom in on skills, STEM, how to attract non-European talent, Erasmus and social media. The event kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Brussels time. Register here to watch it online.