PM Mitsotakis to address question on primary sector by PASOK leader Androulakis
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will answer a question in Parliament on Friday at 12:00 noon regarding the primary sector, posed by PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis.
Farmers roll out their tractors across Greece to protest against rising production costs
Farmers started rolling out their tractors in different parts of the mainland on Thursday, to protest against rising production costs and inadequate infrastructure.
Political landscape remains fractured
Greece’s political landscape remains fragmented following last year’s European elections, with a new Pulse survey revealing modest shifts in voter preferences.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1259560/political-landscape-remains-fractured
EIB approaches €1 bln milestone in Greece
The European Investment Bank is lending the National Bank of Greece 250 million euros to increase support for green investments made by Greek small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-caps. The agreement raises the total intermediated lending made available through this EIB facility to back decarbonization investment by smaller Greek companies to €1 billion.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1259547/eib-approaches-e1-bln-milestone-in-greece
ATHEX: Mixed day points to more growth
Thursday’s mixed session on the Athens bourse was dominated by the placement of Fairfax’s shares in Eurobank – a 2.2% stake – that sent turnover soaring, while the lender’s price eased marginally. Various corporate news involving other blue chips also generated interest and shared some of that with mid-caps as well. In general, the trend at Athinon Avenue remains positive and profit-taking seems contained at this stage, as the market expects further gains.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1259562/athex-mixed-day-points-to-more-growth
KATHIMERINI: Social insurance contributions for overtime work to be reduced
TA NEA: ER departments in local healthcare centers
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Tempi fatal rail crush: “We don’t have any oxygen!”
RIZOSPASTIS: Farmers escalate their protest with blockades throughout the country
KONTRA NEWS: Greece is searching for a lobbyist in the Trump system
DIMOKRATIA: Cheaper electricity at certain hours
NAFTEMPORIKI: Mining investments may make Greece first in Europe regarding crucial raw material
DRIVING THE DAY: THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY
TRUMP DICTATES HIS TERMS TO DAVOS: There was so much demand to be there “in person” to watch President Donald Trump’s virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum Thursday that even the overflow room in the Davos Congress Center started turning people away.
Leader of the free world: Trump doled out demands to foreign countries like they were so many executive orders.
To Saudi Arabia: Boost your planned $600 billion investment to $1 trillion.
To OPEC: Lower oil prices.
To Canada: Either eliminate the trade deficit or become a U.S. state.
The EU and NATO, of course, were not immune. Trump called for NATO countries to devote 5 percent of GDP to defense spending. The EU, he said, needs to speed up its approval processes to draw more investment.
Constructive criticism: Trump was prompted by one of the four mega-execs assigned by WEF to ask the president questions, Blackstone founder and Trump donor Stephen A. Schwarzman, to opine on the European economy.
After griping about how Brussels stymied one of his projects in Ireland, Trump went on to say: “I’m trying to be constructive because I love Europe. I love the countries of Europe. But the process is a very cumbersome one, and they do treat the United States of America very, very unfairly with the bad taxes and all of the other taxes they impose.” (Full article.)
Technically: These taxes include, in Trump’s mind, EU fines against Apple, Google and Facebook. “These are American companies, whether you like them or not,” he said, and the EU “shouldn’t be doing that.” (More here for Tech Pros.)
THE BIG QUESTION: Are these maximalist opening gambits in a negotiation, or strict ultimatums?
Avoidance: Playbook spotted Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski minutes after Trump’s session ended and asked for his reaction. “I didn’t watch it, sorry,” he said. (Perhaps Sikorski got a more diplomatic version of the same message on the phone with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.)
Denial: Minutes later, Playbook bumped into Michael Froman, a veteran American diplomat and trade representative who is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Asked about the vibe he was getting from European policymakers at Davos, Froman said: “I think they are in various stages of denial.”
LISTEN UP — DOES EUROPE STILL MATTER? This week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast considered whether Europe has any control over its own destiny in the age of Trump, with interviews on the ground in Davos with MEP Eva Maydell and Josh Lipsky, director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. Listen here.
SLIGHTLY MORE POLITE ASK: China might be the top target of a potential Trump trade war, but he wants Beijing to help him make peace. “Hopefully China can help us stop the war with in particular Russia,” he said. “They have a great deal of power over that situation and we’ll work with them.” Zoya Sheftalovich has that story.
THE TRUMP EFFECT
IS TRUMP PUSHING ORBÁN TO TOE THE EU LINE? For all Trump’s bluster, one of his earliest concrete impacts on Brussels could be to end Budapest’s obstruction in at least one key area.
Yes, really. EU countries are holding their breath today as the bloc’s ambassadors decide whether to renew sanctions against Russia — with Hungary threatening to use its veto powers to lift all restrictions on Moscow. But thanks to Trump’s post threatening Vladimir Putin with new sanctions if Moscow doesn’t come to the table, Hungary’s threat sounds more like hot air, according to five EU diplomats. (Of course, they admit they can’t predict what Budapest will do.) Read the full article from Gabriel Gavin, Gregorio Sorgi, Victor Jack and Koen Verhelst.
Refresher: The EU’s sanctions against Russia — which cover everything from banning oil and coal imports to the bloc and immobilizing almost €200 billion sovereign assets held in Europe — must be unanimously renewed by its countries every six months. That’s usually a formality, but it also means, theoretically, that any country could allow them all to be lifted simultaneously. But on Tuesday, Orbán said Russian energy exports were hurting EU competitiveness and declared: “The time for change has come!”
A day later, Trump clarified the type of change he’d like to see, threatening Putin with sanctions.
Call Vik, maybe? Trump’s ultimatum clearly cheered centrist EU pols — both for its message to Putin and, implicitly, to Hungary.
“We are in a better place than we were 48 hours ago,” said Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski at a Davos event on Thursday morning. Asked at the same event whether Trump should call Orbán, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola replied: “That was my first thought.”
Call Vlad, maybe? So far, the Kremlin seems to be shrugging off Trump’s threat, Veronika Melkozerova reports. Trump upped the ante in Davos, placing the blame for the ongoing war at Putin’s feet.
HOW TO SURVIVE A CALL WITH TRUMP: My London-based colleague Dan Bloom has an entertaining piece out today about how British leaders such as Theresa May and Boris Johnson handled phone calls with Trump. Read it here.
PARLIAMENT’S SHIFTING COALITIONS
NO MORE “VENEZUELA MAJORITY” FOR VENEZUELA: Wanting to avoid siding with the far right ahead of the German national election in February, the European People’s Party (EPP) group dumped the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations and Patriots for Europe in Parliament Thursday. Instead, the EPP built a majority with the Socialists and Democrats and Renew Europe to adopt a resolution condemning Nicolás Maduro for clinging to power in Venezuela.
Oh, the irony. You’ll recall in September 2024 when the same issue brought about a new model for right-wing collaboration in the Parliament. The “Venezuela majority” was born when the center-right EPP voted with far-right MEPs, including those from the Alternative for Germany, to recognize opposition leader Edmundo González as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
Pour one out for the right team: Heartbroken, the Patriots accused the EPP of “abandoning Venezuela” by softening its stance, for example by not including an explicit demand that EU countries recognize González as the legitimate president. Just hours prior, they were boasting about the fall of the cordon sanitaire after scoring the vice presidency of the intergroup on wine and spirits following negotiations with the EPP and European Conservatives and Reformists. “Wine unites us across political groups,” they said in an X post — which has since been deleted.
BELARUS ‘ELECTION’
TSIKHANOUSKAYA — EU NEEDS A BELARUS STRATEGY: “Be prepared for the next moment of opportunity,” Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya urged the EU ahead of the latest round of sham elections in Belarus on Sunday.
Speaking to Playbook in a corridor of the Davos Congress Center, the exiled opposition leader (and presidential election victor) praised the EU’s consistent support for Belarusian activists even as their fight fades from the headlines. Nonetheless, she said, the EU needs a “strategy” to take advantage of the next potential tipping point when Alexander Lukashenko’s dictatorship could fall.
It was understandable that Europe didn’t have one when protests first started in 2020 — but the EU still doesn’t have a day-after plan, she said. “There will be only two alternatives for Belarus: Either somebody very pro-Russia like Lukashenko’s followers or it will be democratic forces.”
What a “moment of opportunity” might look like, according to Tsikhanouskaya:
1 — Ukraine’s victory: “Without the support of Putin, Lukashenko wouldn’t survive … politically.”
2 — “Internal coup d’etat, because we see how more and more people inside this regime see that is a dead-end for our country.”
3 — Economic uprising. Tsikhanouskaya acknowledged this scenario was less likely because Lukashenko “militarized our economy” to help Russia in Ukraine. Sanctions would help, she added.
4 — Unrest in Russia. Another more remote scenario, she conceded. Then again, who would have imagined Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ill-fated march on Moscow?
METSOLA URGES MORE SANCTIONS: Sunday’s election “is a sham,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in a statement to Playbook. “It will only serve to keep an ally of Putin in place and a dictator as next-door neighbor to the European Union.” Calling for additional sanctions, she added: “We cannot afford to ignore a hostile autocracy that keeps threatening our member states.”
ICYMI … Tatsiana Ashurkevich has a deep dive into Lukashenko’s attempts to weaponize migration to damage the EU.
IN OTHER NEWS
RED LIGHT FOR GREEN REPORTING: The French government has joined calls to stall EU green reporting rules, demanding an indefinite delay of due diligence requirements,POLITICO’s Giorgio Leali and Marianne Gros report exclusively.
TARDY TRANSPARENCY: Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi belatedly updated his public-facing calendar to show he’d attended a Cabinet meeting of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after Playbook pointed out Thursday it had been omitted. Apparently, Várhelyi debriefed Orbán’s all-male Cabinet about the previous Commission’s “achievements” in enlarging the EU.
Drawing a blank: When Playbook asked questions earlier in the week about Várhelyi’s attendance at the meeting in Budapest, the Commission told us it was “not uncommon” for commissioners to participate in government meetings. But when Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Jan Diesteldorf pressed the Commission at a press conference Thursday for a concrete example of this happening, he was told that … err … they didn’t have one to hand.
IT’S OFFICIAL: Micheál Martin was elected Ireland’s new prime minister. But his coalition is shaky, Shawn Pogatchnik reports.