Farmers ponder protest future after ‘unsatisfactory’ talks with Mitsotakis
Protesting Greek farmers who are demanding extra state subsidies and tax breaks will decide Tuesday whether to continue their weeks-long campaign of blocking key highways and border crossings, following lengthy talks with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis yesterday.
Mitsotakis says changing Greenland status quo would be ‘disastrous’
Any attempt to change the status quo in Greenland would be “disastrous” and a “direct challenge to NATO,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in an interview Monday. “It could prove the final straw in a difficult relationship we have with the US,” Mitsotakis said. “Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and that cannot be questioned.”
Government, opposition criticize Karystianou call for public consultation on abortions
Maria Karystianou described abortions as a matter for public consultation during a television interview Monday, in comments drawing criticism from the government spokesperson and opposition figures alike. Speaking on OPEN TV, Karystianou, who is a doctor, said she respects free will and described the issue as complex because it involves both women’s rights and what she described as the rights of the embryo.
Bank of Greece expects inflation to ease this year
The Bank of Greece has revised downwards its inflation forecasts for 2026 and 2027, while a resurgence of inflationary pressures is expected in 2028. According to the Bank of Greece’s regular inflation publication, the “Inflation Monitor,” the European Union-Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices in Greece is estimated to increase by 2.1% in 2026, while in 2027 it will increase marginally to 2.2%. In 2028 it is estimated to strengthen further, with inflation reaching 2.5%.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1292826/bog-expects-inflation-to-ease-this-year
ATHEX: Yet another historic high for bourse
Greek blue chips shook off Donald Trump’s tariff pressure on Europe regarding Greenland, and having banks as leaders they sent the benchmark to new highs on Monday. Despite the US holiday, Athinon Avenue boasted significant turnover and the main index climbed to a level unseen in over 16 years, as the Greek bourse continues on its course toward formally becoming a member of the developed markets’ club later in the year.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1292803/athex-yet-another-historic-high-for-bourse
KATHIMERINI: The dilemmas of Athens regarding Greenland and Gaza Board of Peace
TA NEA: Inheritances: three major changes in favor of children
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Rail tragedy in Spain without a government cover-up
RIZOSPASTIS: Dangerous fire [oil tanks located] in Perama: They are toying with simple folks’ lives to gain profits
KONTRA NEWS: Polls: Huge dynamic for Tsipras and Karystianou
DIMOKRATIA: Israel-Greece axis strengthened after the Kurdish tragedy
NAFTEMPORIKI: Terror scenery in the EU-USA relations
DRIVING THE DAY: ART OF THE DEAL
HOW TO TALK TO TRUMP: European capitals are hatching a plan to force President Donald Trump to back down over his demands to take control of Greenland from Denmark. Or, rather, they’re hatching several different plans and throwing everything they have at anyone they think might listen — sparking fears they aren’t speaking with one voice.
Mark your calendars: Trump and his entourage are at the Davos Summit on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday morning, EU ambassadors will sit down for another Coreper, two diplomats told Playbook, before national leaders fly into Brussels for emergency talks over dinner on Thursday night. Two other officials confirmed commissioners will then gather on Friday for a Security College, a formation first convened last year to deal with threats.
None of this coordination has stopped EU leaders from getting on the phone with the Americans.
Flooding the field: “All member states now have a mandate to reach out to American counterparts and make it clear [acquiring Greenland] would be totally unacceptable,” said one diplomat involved in coordinating the EU’s response. “There will be ministerial meetings in Davos and in Washington; all of our ambassadors have been reaching out to congressional contacts and anyone they know in the MAGA movement to try and get the message across that we will respond with force if they go ahead.”
Not everyone likes that: A camp of cautious countries still believes it can avoid confrontation with Trump. Speaking to center-right lawmakers on Monday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and European People’s Party (EPP) chief Manfred Weber said the EU should not issue grand threats against the U.S. publicly and should instead stand firm and channel concerns privately, according to three people present.
The pro-business EPP has also privately expressed concern over the EU’s Anti-Corruption Instrument (ACI) — the so-called trade bazooka — which it wants to keep off the table for the time being, my colleague Max Griera reports. In a speech in Davos today, von der Leyen will have a chance to weigh into that debate within her own faction.
Another rift? The lack of clarity over whether to place the policy missile on the table has riled allies, particularly given German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil had publicly supported France’s push to float the ACI as retaliation if Trump’s tariffs are actually imposed. “You can’t take these statements at face value,” said a second senior EU diplomat. “Different German government ministers say different things; and the German ambassador said the ACI should be on the table at Coreper on Sunday.”
How’s that working out? Inside the governing German coalition, meanwhile, officials were urging their spokespeople to show restraint over the weekend and to avoid “blabbering” that could weaken a coordinated EU response, according to an internal memo seen by POLITICO.
“We need to be very moderate because our goal is not to fight with the Americans,” Tajani said when asked by Max whether the EU should take a tougher line towards Trump, after his right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke with the U.S. president. “Talking to Trump, she said we are not in favor of new tariffs, but we want to achieve an agreement … we want to talk with Americans to achieve good results [and find a] win-win agreement.”
Little convergence: Brando Benifei, a center-left Italian MEP and chair of the parliament’s delegation to the U.S., told Playbook he supported wielding the threat of the ACI in the negotiations — “but the current political situation makes it difficult to put on the table credibly … the more united you are, the more you achieve your goals, but there’s still not much of a convergence of member states’ views on what to do.”
The Trump administration isn’t exactly shaking at the prospect. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested to reporters in Davos on Monday that Washington isn’t expecting the EU to deploy its strongest trade weapon, the FT reports. “I imagine they will form the dreaded European working group first, which seems to be their most forceful weapon,” Bessent said.
Keeping the tent on the circus: The lack of overall strategy, and the fact capitals all have their own approach, is becoming a problem. A European Council official told POLITICO that agreeing how to handle the situation is the priority for the summit on Thursday: “Latest developments in transatlantic relations warrant a discussion among leaders on their implications for the EU and to coordinate on the way forward.” The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has also spoken to “most” national foreign ministers in the past 48 hours, an official said.
No point person: Those same capitals say the scattergun strategy is born out of the fact that no one leader has emerged as a “Trump whisperer” — especially after Finnish President Alexander Stubb got dragged into a dressing-down as part of Trump’s anger at Norway over not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. “Whether it’s Meloni or Stubb or [NATO Secretary-General Mark] Rutte, nothing is working. And what works one day might not work the next day,” said a third diplomat.
Hitting the base: There’s also a growing awareness that the people best placed to bring Trump back from the brink aren’t Europeans but Americans. “It’s an imperial court and it’s shifting all the time,” a fourth senior diplomat said of the MAGA leadership. “That’s what we try to do is influence members of Congress. They are Republicans, they are up for reelection in November. They have to think about their audiences at home.”
A VERY GREENLAND DAVOS: If Donald Trump had wanted to throw a hand grenade into the World Economic Forum, he couldn’t have picked a better way to do it than to threaten NATO allies with tariffs if they didn’t acquiesce to an American takeover of Greenland. POLITICO’s Kathryn Carlson describes the tense atmosphere in this curtain-raiser from Davos … while Bloomberg reports that Stubb told reporters he’s worried the Greenland crisis will “suck out all the oxygen” out of the summit and sideline Ukraine.
FOLLOW IT HERE: POLITICO’s team of reporters in Davos, Brussels, Washington and beyond will be bringing you every key development in our live blog from 8 a.m.
MIDDLE EAST
TRUMP’S BOARD OF PEACE GETS A MIXED RESPONSE: French President Emmanuel Macron isn’t interested in joining Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on the future of Gaza, but Ursula von der Leyen — who also received an invitation — is still considering her options, Playbook’s Nick Vinocur reports.
ICYMI: Trump has sent out invitations to a range of leaders — including Russian dictator Vladimir Putin — to join his Board of Peace, an intergovernmental organization led by POTUS himself. Bloomberg has reported that a permanent seat on the Board comes with a $1 billion price tag … and that Trump is keen to get its constitution and remit nailed down in Davos on Thursday.
How much? An EU official who spoke to Playbook said the invitation received by von der Leyen does not include a mention of the $1 billion price of entry. The Commission president was assessing her response, which she would make in consultation with European leaders as she was invited to “represent the EU,” per the official.
Trump threatened overnight to impose a 200 percent tariff on French wines and Champagnes in response to Macron’s rejection of the Board, Reuters reports.
Fine print: Concerns include whether the Board is fully legal, what implications it might have for the United Nations and also who else is involved. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accepted his invitation.
BANNING BEIJING
BRUSSELS VS. CHINESE 5G: The EU will today unveil legislation to ensure “high-risk” countries are cut out of telecoms projects, the bloc’s tech chief confirmed in an interview with POLITICO. Speaking to Sam Clark, European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen said she is not happy that national governments are taking so long to boot Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE out of their networks.
No signal: “I’m not satisfied [with] how the member states … have been implementing our 5G toolbox,” she said, referring to the Commission’s 2020 request for national governments to take action on Chinese suppliers over fears about spying, data security and overreliance. “We know that we still have high-risk vendors in our 5G networks, in the critical parts … so now we will have stricter rules on this.” Virkkunen said there will be a three-year transition period for operators to phase out high-risk suppliers.
We don’t trust you: The legislation being unveiled today will not name specific countries. But In 2023, then-European Commissioner Thierry Breton said Huawei and ZTE represented “materially higher risks than other 5G suppliers” and that national governments were justified in blocking them from their telecom networks. And the EU toolbox for 5G security lists “restrictions” — meaning bans — among its mitigating measures.
IN OTHER NEWS
DG BERL: The ground floor cafe of the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, beloved of officials and visitors alike, is temporarily under renovation, officials tell Playbook. “The BERL cafeteria is being renovated to improve acoustics and lighting of the space. Works will last around six weeks,” a spokesperson confirmed.
Espresso elevator: As an alternative, more and more visitors — including reporters and lobbyists — are being taken up by their hosts to the exclusive coffee bar on the 11th floor of the building for their daily fix, rubbing shoulders with top officials as they do so.
Meanwhile in Davos … Jamie Dettmer writes in to report that Ukraine House is serving the best coffee of anywhere at the elite conference in the Swiss Alps: SvitKavy, a brand with branches in Kyiv and Lviv.
CURD CONSPIRACY: What’s better: vaccination or death? The Greek government is choosing the latter for sheep-pox infected flocks, spelling disaster for the feta industry, Nektaria Stamouli reports.
ZBIG WELCOME: Zbigniew Ziobro, a politician from Poland’s former governing hard-right Law and Justice Party who is wanted as part of investigations into spying on political opponents and the misuse of funds, has been granted asylum in Hungary. Poland’s Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek told Bartosz Brzeziński that threatens rule of law in the EU.
BRITAIN’S NEW NATO ATTACHÉ: The U.K. has appointed Lieutenant General Eldon Millar, who previously served in NATO operations in the Balkans and the Middle East, as its next military representative to the alliance. The explosive ordnance disposal specialist will begin his role today.