Constantine Tassoulas sworn in as President of the Hellenic Republic
Constantine Tassoulas was sworn in as President of the Hellenic Republic on Thursday. Tassoulas will succeed Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Greece’s first woman president and former Chief Justice of the Council of State.
Fresh shift in political dynamics, survey shows
A new poll by Real Polls has revealed a significant shift on Greece’s political scene, with the anti-establishment Course for Freedom (Plefsi Eleftherias) party surging to second place, surpassing center-left PASOK. The ruling conservative New Democracy party still maintains a strong lead with 23.2%, but Course for Freedom, led by Zoe Konstantopoulou, has skyrocketed to 12.6%. PASOK, previously in second place, now stands at 10%.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1264040/fresh-shift-in-political-dynamics-survey-shows
Prosecutor urges guilty verdicts for 12 of 21 defendants in trial for 2018 Mati fire
The public prosecutor on the bench on Thursday called for the conviction of 12 of the 21 defendants in the repeat trial for the devastating Mati fire of 2018, in which 104 people lost their lives. Among them were senior officers in the fire department and top local government officials, including the then governor of Attica Rena Dourou.
Wildfire breaks out on Evia island
A wildfire broke out on Thursday night in the Karystos area of Evia Island, prompting an emergency response. According to reports, the fire was burning a forested area in rugged terrain, making access difficult. However, it does not threaten residential areas.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1264025/wildfire-breaks-out-on-evia-island
ATHEX: Bourse goes from strength to strength
The banks index reached a new decade-high on Thursday, preserving the Greek bourse’s rising course and leading the benchmark to yet another 14-year record, even though the rest of the market presented a mixed picture. The closing auctions saw plenty of action on a day dominated for traders by the reopening of Greek bonds, with daily turnover again remaining sizable.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1264045/athex-bourse-goes-from-strength-to-strength
KATHIMERINI: The difficult puzzle of the government reshuffle
TA NEA: 15 small secrets to pay smaller tax
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: The witnesses insist about the landfill of the Tempi disaster plot
RIZOSPASTIS: Huge questions regarding the train routes carrying NATO material
KONTRA NEWS: Zoi Konstantopoulou’s party skyrocketed due to the huge rage regarding the Tempi tragedy
DIMOKRATIA: Shocking dialogues regarding the transport of NATO war material
NAFTEMPORIKI: Fuel for acquisitions and investments
DRIVING THE DAY: PARLIAMENT SCANDAL
THIS KEEPS HAPPENING: Once again, signs declaring “SCELLES JUDICIAIRES” and “Absolutely forbidden to open this door” are plastered with blue and white police tape on doors of European Parliament offices. Homes across Belgium are being searched in early morning raids. And sources are texting us to say they knew it all along.
Depressing déjà vu: Just a few years after the Qatargate bribery allegations rocked the EU’s only directly elected institution, similar accusations of cash-for-favors are once again casting a shadow on current and former European lawmakers. The “alleged bribery” would have benefited China’s tech giant Huawei, the Belgian prosecutor’s office said Thursday.
BY THE NUMBERS: Here’s what we know about the scope of the investigation:
— 21 addresses in Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia and in Portugal were raided by police Thursday morning.
— “Several people” have been arrested.
— 15 current and former MEPs are “on the radar” of investigators, according to media outlets Follow The Money, Le Soir and Knack, which teamed up to break this story.
— 2 parliamentary assistants’ offices have been sealed.
AND SOME NAMES, based on those sealed offices:
— Adam Mouchtar, a long-time official and current assistant to newly elected MEP Nikola Minchev, confirmed to POLITICO his office was sealed but denied any wrongdoing. Mouchtar was also a co-founder of the EU40 group, whose former president was Greek politician Eva Kaili — a key figure in the Qatargate corruption probe.
— The other sealed office belonged to assistants working for long-time Italian EPP MEP Fulvio Martusciello and for his party peer Marco Falcone, according to the Parliament’s public pages and three people who work at the institution. It is unclear which of the assistants and MEPs would be impacted by the investigation. Martusciello declined to comment on the allegations at the center of the probe. Falcone and the MEPs’ assistants did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
HUAWEI’S RESPONSE: A spokesperson told POLITICO: “Huawei takes these allegations seriously and will urgently communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation. Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times.” Read the full round-up by POLITICO’s all-star team of Antoaneta Roussi, Elisa Braun, Max Griera and Mathieu Pollet.
REAL TALK: Huawei and the actions of its lobbyists have been subject to scrutiny by journalists and Belgian security services for years. Like Qatargate, this investigation looks likely to throw up the sort of rumors and suspicions that have long swirled around the city. Yet people have continued to conduct business more or less as usual in a system where schmoozing and hospitality make it easy to mask malfeasance — or at least exceedingly difficult to prove it.
Blame the cops: The Belgian authorities are indeed struggling to prove allegations, even as they’re made public — a situation that creates its own injustice, said Loránt Vincze, the top EPP lawmaker in the constitutional affairs committee. “It is concerning that Qatargate has so far led to no indictments of MEPs, while a new Belgian investigation has recently been leaked, further tarnishing the reputation of the European Parliament,” Vincze told Max.
Blame the conservatives: Meanwhile, others are pointing to the EPP and other right-wing MEPs for holding up a key post-Qatargate reform: an independent ethics body that would align transparency standards across institutions. The EPP teamed up with the far right to ax the €110,000 allocated to the body. (Conservative lawmakers say the body would go too far in policing independent politicians; transparency hawks complain it wouldn’t go far enough.)
Blame game: The Huawei case “might go down into history as potentially larger and more consequential than Qatargate,” observed Alberto Alemanno, a professor of EU law at HEC Paris who’s working on a book about the response to the earlier scandal. Among the persistent failures, Alemanno said: Even when EU institutions have integrity rules, “they fail to monitor and enforce their respect.” Max has more on the blame game here.
COUNTERPOINT: One of the people who Playbook called Thursday morning — frankly to see if they were under arrest (they weren’t, obvs) — speculated that this round of police action was a result of the post-Qatargate transparency reforms. We can’t rule it out.
CEASEFIRE LATEST
LAST NIGHT IN MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to meet with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff in the Kremlin last night to discuss America’s proposal for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. Putin had earlier said he backed a ceasefire — before reverting to the classic stalling tactic of laying out questions and conditions.
The latest: As Playbook was being sent out this morning, neither Russian nor American media had readouts from the meeting — assuming it even took place. Kremlin-controlled Izvestia reported Witkoff’s motorcade had been spotted around town in Moscow during the day and that the envoy had spent around an hour in the U.S. Embassy on Thursday evening, before his motorcade traveled to the airport and his plane took off (presumably with him on it).
Waltz’s take: Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz appeared on Fox News overnight, telling Sean Hannity “we do have some cautious optimism” that a ceasefire deal is imminent. “Of course both sides are going to have their demands, and of course both sides are going to have to make some compromises,” Waltz said Thursday evening U.S. time. “The shuttle diplomacy is happening … I’ve spoken to my counterpart; special envoy Witkoff is out there and bringing things back for us to evaluate.”
Shape of the deal: Hannity laid out his view on what a negotiated settlement of the war could entail: a U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal, the potential for European troops on the ground to secure peace, Kyiv giving up its ambition to join NATO, and Ukraine ceding parts of the Donbas region as well as “areas that are heavily populated by people from Russia.”
Asked whether that was close to what was being discussed, Waltz said: “You’re not wrong in any of that … we’re discussing all of those things with both sides. We are having those discussions with our counterparts with the Russians, we are having those discussions with our counterparts with the Ukrainians, and we are pushing both sides together.”
MORE UKRAINE
NOW BACK TO BRUSSELS … where talks on helping to secure Ukraine are ongoing, even as the EU is locked out of the negotiations being run by Trump’s White House.
DEFENSE WHITE PAPER FIRST LOOK: The EU aims to make a “massive investment” in its defense industry to deter Russia and support Ukraine, according to a draft of the so-called White Paper on defense obtained by Jacopo Barigazzi. “Rebuilding European defence requires a massive investment over a sustained period,” the draft says.
THE €40B COALITION: The EU’s diplomatic body is proposing a plan for a coalition of countries to send up to €40 billion in military aid to Ukraine this year, according to a draft document also seen by Jacopo, which EU ambassadors will discuss today. A “first step” for those willing to participate is to agree to provide 2 million shells worth €5 billion to Kyiv, per the document. In addition, “participating states are encouraged to deliver military support to Ukraine in 2025 with a provisional value of at least €20 billion, and potentially reaching €40 billion pending Ukrainian needs.”
WHERE THERE’S NO WILL, THERE’S NO WAY: The EU’s leaders will call on Russia “to show real political will to end the war,” in the latest draft of the Council conclusions they’ll agree on at next week’s summit. The text stresses that the “European Union and its Member States stand ready to participate in the peace process and help secure a just and lasting peace for Ukraine,” Jacopo reports.
SANCTIONS SHOWDOWN: The EU’s individual sanctions on Russian individuals will need to be renewed before the end of the day on Saturday. That means EU ambassadors this morning need to put pressure on their Hungarian colleague to swallow a compromise.
How to deal with a problem like Viktor: Budapest, fueled by Trump’s pressure on Ukraine, is emboldened and sees more opportunity for its usual sabotage. Diplomats, however, stressed that work will continue today. Removing a few choice names from the sanctions list could be a way forward.
TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS
WHERE WE’RE AT NOW 1: “Imagine that you love so much being governed that you want a government for your government,” said a meme posted by (who else?) Elon Musk late Thursday, with the EU’s ring of stars encircling a hammer and sickle.
WHERE WE’RE AT NOW 2: Portugal won’t replace its U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets with more modern F-35s because of Trump, its defense minister told news organization Publico. As my colleague Laura Kayali notes, it’s one of the first examples of the U.S. president killing a lucrative potential arms deal.
EU TRADE CHIEF’S DRINK DIALING: European Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will call his U.S. counterparts Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer late afternoon today, after Trump threatened to hit European wines and Champagne with tariffs of 200 percent.
Spit take: Enraged about the EU’s planned 50 percent duties on American spirits (in retaliation for Trump’s new duties on steel and aluminum), the president warned on Truth Social: “If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES.”
Blacking out: “This would de-facto close the U.S. market for EU wine makers,” said Ignacio Sánchez-Recarte, who leads the European Committee of Wine Companies. Read more in Morning Trade.
DENMARK’S NOT AMUSED: Rasmus Jarlov, the chairman of the defense committee in Denmark’s parliament, wasn’t best pleased with NATO boss Mark Rutte’s nervous laughter when the topic of Greenland came up during his press conference with Trump. “We do not appreciate the Secr. Gen. of NATO joking with Trump about Greenland like this,” Jarlov posted on X Thursday. More here.
JUSTICE CHIEF’S HIGH-LEVEL MEETING: Commissioner Michael McGrath landed a high-level meeting Thursday in Washington with Andrew Ferguson, chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, to talk about consumer protection, the protection of minors online, e-commerce and “our shared understanding of the importance of data flows and the continued enforcement of the EU-US Data privacy framework.”
On hostile territory: The EU’s Digital Services Act “is absolutely not about censorship, it’s in many respects the opposite,” McGrath said. He’s certainly not the first EU official to defend Brussels’ social media law from complaints by American politicians who see online moderation efforts as a curb on free speech. Yet given his boss, Commission EVP Henna Virkkunen, canceled her planned trip to the U.S., McGrath’s words are as notable for their setting as their substance. Pieter Haeck has more from McGrath’s trip in Morning Tech.
EPP CONGRESS CONUNDRUM CONCLUSION
EPP OPTS FOR MORTIFYING PROTESTS IN VALENCIA: The European People’s Party’s major congress will be held in Valencia as originally planned next month, despite the certainty of bad optics.
Never mind! Spanish members of the European umbrella party had made a forceful push to move the annual gathering to Madrid to avoid massive protests over the center-right regional president’s management of October’s deadly floods, an EPP official told Max Griera. But preparations for Valencia will continue “after considerations,” EPP chief Manfred Weber said in an email to key party members on Thursday morning.
“Considerations” = calculations: After days of intense negotiations, Weber ultimately “got nervous” about the high cancellation costs, according to the same official, and pressed ahead with Valencia. That’s left the Spaniards “disappointed” and feeling like they got screwed over “by the Germans,” added the official (using coarser language, which Playbook doesn’t think you need to read first thing in the morning). A second official noted the EPP would not be able to take the cancellation costs on without risking trouble in future audits.
Now what? Gear up for major protests when Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk descend on Valencia.
RENEW-ING THEIR REPUTATIONS
ATTAL AND HAYER’S BIG SUMMIT: Ex-French PM Gabriel Attal and top Renew MEP Valérie Hayer are organizing their big political comeback. The two are inviting lawmakers from around Europe and beyond to “a high-level Political Parliamentary Summit” in Paris on March 24, my colleague Giorgio Leali writes in to report. During the big gathering at the Cité universitaire, like-minded lawmakers are set to “reaffirm our support to Ukraine” and “set up an alliance for liberal democracies,” according to the invitation.
On the guest list: Lawmakers from Canada and the U.K., as well as French President Emmanuel Macron, to whom Attal and Hayer have been loyal lieutenants.
Aprés-summit: Occurring just days after the March 20-21 European Council, the Paris rally is meant to serve as a follow-up of sorts, and as a way to show that legislators also have a role to play in tackling the big files usually managed by heads of government.
FOR THE DIARY
PLENARY CALENDAR: The Parliament voted on the plenary calendar for 2026; details here. Book your Strasbourg hotels before it’s too late.
PORTUGAL ELECTION: Snap elections have been called for May 18. The Portuguese parliament will be dissolved on March 19. More from Aitor Hernández-Morales.
QUICK HITS
THE OTHER PEACE DEAL: Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the terms of a peace treaty Thursday that could end a decades-long conflict, reports Dato Parulava.
LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT: With transatlantic ties fraying, I sat down with Brussels’ top policy minds to assess whether Europe’s leadership is fit for purpose — or stuck in the past — for this week’s EU Confidential podcast.