MPs Tzakri and Poulou quit SYRIZA, making PASOK the main opposition
The MPs Theodora Tzakri and Giota Poulou, who were elected to Parliament on a SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance ticket, on Thursday announced that they are quitting the party to become independent. Following this development, SYRIZA-PA has dropped to 29 MPs in the Greek parliament, which means that PASOK-Movement for Change with its 31 deputies automatically becomes the main opposition.
Androulakis: Our goal now is to defeat New Democracy and change the central policy
“My great concern is for more and more Greeks to see hope in PASOK. Our goal is and must be for more and more Greeks to see a prospect in PASOK. A political choice that is reliable, serious, with political ethics and consistency, which can change and improve their lives,” said Nikos Androulakis, whose PASOK-Movement for Change party on Thursday formally became the main opposition, while speaking to radio station Real FM.
Digital obstacles to tax evasion
The government is building on the successful application of its measures against tax evasion and is introducing a new batch of interventions for 2025 that should improve tax compliance further and allow for middle incomes to have more of the burden that has been placed on them lifted. The measures taken to date have resulted in the growth of tax revenue by 1.8 billion euros, but National Economy and Finance Minister Kostis Hatzidakis spoke on Thursday about new measures to limit tax evasion and serve citizens, most of them digital.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1254150/digital-obstacles-to-tax-evasion
ADMIE signs agreement with China’s SGID for 20% stake in Ariadne interconnection
The Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) signed an agreement for the sale of a 20% stake in its subsidiary Ariadne Interconnection to State Grid International Development (SGID) of China on Thursday.
ATHEX: Corporate results see bourse climb
A series of largely positive corporate results published on Thursday gave a fresh boost to the Greek stock market and offered the benchmark the chance to recover more of the ground lost in previous days. However, this price increase was recorded on significantly reduced daily turnover, the lowest of the last 13 sessions.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1254148/athex-corporate-results-see-bourse-climb
KATHIMERINI: Code: “Middle Class”
TA NEA: PASOK is now the main opposition: A development changing the political scenery
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Ukraine: What’s behind the new missile crisis
RIZOSPASTIS: The imperialistic conflict between NATO and Russia in Ukraine escalates
KONTRA NEWS: PASOK dominates the Center-Left
DIMOKRATIA: Onslaught games
NAFTEMPORIKI: Electronic crackdown on tax evasion
DRIVING THE DAY: TRUMP’S TEAM
TRUMP’S ODDLY NORMAL FOREIGN POLICY PICKS: “America First” might not be the fist to the face so many in Brussels have been expecting, if President-elect Donald Trump’s early Cabinet hints are any guide.
That’s a big “if,” of course. Still, for the roles most relevant to transatlantic relations, Trump has thus far named men who are, at best, fairly conventional Republicans and, at worst, relative unknowns.
KNOWN KNOWN: Marco Rubio, secretary of State: The Florida senator ran against Trump in 2016, earning the moniker “little Marco.” While he managed to smooth things over with Trump, Rubio remains a relatively conventional Republican hawk. He’s a regular attendee of the Munich Security Conference and has long pushed for a muscular response to Vladimir Putin. He voted against sending more funding to Ukraine earlier this year, but as POLITICO’s Washington-based national security reporter Eric Bazail-Eimil explained to yours truly on this week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast, it was because Rubio wanted more funding for the U.S. border — not because he wanted to cut off Ukraine (or Taiwan or Israel).
Most importantly, Rubio is not Ric Grenell, the pugilistic former ambassador to Germany, who was rumored to be Trump’s State pick until the Rubio announcement.
UNKNOWN KNOWN: Matthew Whitaker, NATO ambassador. Wednesday’s late announcement that the Trump loyalist was his pick for the Brussels post came out of the blue. Whitaker was briefly Trump’s acting attorney general, but he’s got pretty much no foreign policy record. (Eric searched his tweets for clues; he seemed supportive of Ukraine in the early days of the invasion.)
“We’ll take what we can get,” is what one European official told my colleagues Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch. “If we are forced to pick, we’ll take the guy who doesn’t know much about NATO but Trump will actually pick up the phone for.” Others marveled that Trump had named someone to the alliance so quickly — that means it’s important to him, right? Right? Read the full article.
KNOWN UNKNOWNS: Whither Robert Lighthizer? The future for the architect of Trump’s disruptive tariffs policy is unclear. Even if Lighthizer gets a top economic post, it seems like Trump already handed the trade keys to someone else. Commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, a billionaire financier, will be in charge of the “tariff and trade agenda,” with “direct responsibility for the Office of the United States Trade Representative.” Prompting some skepticism about how aggressively Trump will actually pursue the 20 percent tariff increases he promised incessantly before the election, Gavin Bade reports.
Early days: Don’t count out Lighthizer, or Grenell, or anyone else, for anything. As Matt Gaetz’s surprise nomination — and now surprising withdrawal — from the attorney general post shows, nothing is certain or permanent in Trumpland.
UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS: Everything. Other foreign policy picks have been highly unorthodox, including Tulsi Gabbard as Trump’s top intelligence chief and Pete Hegseth as defense secretary. And as Eric pointed out in our podcast conversation, the deputies and undersecretaries Trump chooses will say as much, if not more, about whether his White House will actually implement policies than the bold-faced names at the top do.
COSTA ON-RECORD
THE ANTI-MICHEL? In his first interview with POLITICO since becoming president-elect of the European Council, António Costa said he was keen to help the EU forge “closer relations with different regions and countries that are relevant in a world that is much more than the G7 or the G20.”
Looking south: The former Portuguese prime minister — who is of Goan-Mozambican descent and the first person from an ethnic minority to head one of the bloc’s most important institutions — told Aitor Hernández-Morales that he is eager to work with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and incoming top diplomat Kaja Kallas to redefine Europe’s often unequal relationship with Asia, Africa and South America.
Let’s talk: Costa is famous for striking unlikely agreements in Lisbon, and he’s confident he’ll continue doing so in a Council that reflects the bloc’s growing political polarization. “My main mission is to guarantee unity between everyone,” he said. “And that means being in permanent contact.”
New era: After five years of Charles Michel-shaped debacles, EU leaders and diplomats can barely contain their excitement over Costa’s Dec. 1 takeover of the Council. There’s widespread hope that the former Portuguese prime minister will be able to restore the dignity and effectiveness of the institution, and his warm working relationship with von der Leyen is being celebrated in a bubble that is sick of interinstitutional feuds.
“We expect a lot from Costa and his team,” said one senior EU diplomat. “But, of course, the bar is so low.” Read the full article.
BAD ENERGY
EUROPE’S INTERNAL TRADE WAR: Who even needs Trump? The bloc can tear itself apart over trade issues all on its own, thankyouverymuch, as Thursday’s gathering of foreign affairs and trade ministers showed.
Anatomy of a fallout: It all started OK. As EU ministers entered the Justus Lipsius building, they all had one word on how to tackle Trump’s divide-and-rule strategy: unity.
It seemingly ended OK, too. When it comes to EU-U.S. trade relations, “you can really feel that all 27 understand the importance of unity — and hopefully speaking with one voice as the EU,” one diplomat gushed at around 2 p.m., as the meeting wrapped.
Airing the dirty laundry: Not an hour later, it all fell apart in front of reporters, as Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó exposed a yawning rift on sanctions, Camille Gijs and Koen Verhelst write in to report. At the concluding press conference, the two politicians argued on the podium over the effectiveness — or not — of EU measures that seek to punish Russia for its war on Ukraine.
So much for the “honest broker”: Szijjártó, on the podium as the representative of the rotating Council presidency, took the unusual approach of articulating Budapest’s position, rather than channeling the view from the broader collective as the meeting’s chair. With Sweden and other countries wanting to impose tariffs on Russian goods, Szijjártó — whose government is the most pro-Russian in the EU — accused those countries of trying to make an end-run around Brussels’ rule that sanctions (unlike tariffs) can only be applied with the backing of all EU27.
The EU are “hypocrites” when it comes to sanctions, the Hungarian minister said. Noting the problems that would arise if Brussels took the step of sanctioning Russian gas, he continued: “If we broke off trade with Russia on importing gas, obviously our country would not be able to continue operations. We simply don’t have enough pipes to bring the necessary amount of gas and oil into our country.” The foreign minister pointed out that other countries around the bloc continue to import Russian gas.
Dombro loses it — in his own Dombro way: This triggered a forceful response from Dombrovskis, at least by his standards. (He’s known in the EU bubble for keeping a cool head while others are losing theirs and barely ever changing his facial expression.) Hungary, of course, is the one that blocked those gas sanctions.
Them’s fightin’ words: “I was a bit puzzled by Mr. Minister mentioning gas in the context of sanctions because the EU was never able to agree to sanction the Russian gas — because there was no unanimity for that. So therefore it’s something which certainly doesn’t fall into the discussion of sanctions,” Dombrovskis said. “Puzzled” was quite the mic drop for his last trade ministerial.
And another thing: Szijjártó also took exception to an offer made by Ursula von der Leyen, within days of Trump’s election victory, to buy more U.S. liquefied natural gas — a gesture widely seen as an attempt to curry favor with Trump that Szijjártó said overstepped the mark.
Hungary’s stance: “The question of the energy mix is under national competence, and we want to have it that way,” he said. “In other words, we are going to refuse everything that wants to have an impact on us and whom we’re buying energy [from].”
Fit from the FT: The unusual presser was also punctuated by the abrupt departure of the Financial Times’ EU correspondent Andrew Bounds. He was protesting Hungarian spokesperson Anna Atanaszov’s approach of bundling a “bouquet” of multiple questions before giving Szijjártó and Dombrovskis the floor to answer.
Why journos hate this: It lets politicians pick and choose which questions to engage with, allowing a merely forgetful dodge, rather than forcing an artful one.
NOW READ THIS: Tesla, Trump and the China tariff clash.
VDL 2 COMMISSION
CONFIRMATION TIMING: Dates to know as Ursula von der Leyen’s new team nears the finish line (errr, starting point), per Parliament spox Delphine Colard:
Nov. 26: Chairs of the Parliament’s committees meet to consider each nominee’s evaluation letter.
Nov. 27 morning: The Parliament’s political group leaders meet at 8 a.m. to “exchange views and decide on the closure of the process.”
… later: von der Leyen and her team debate MEPs about their priorities.
… and finally: A roll-call vote on the new team, with a majority needed to pass.
Dec. 1: If all goes well, the new Commission is a go.
Metsola’s assessment: “It was not easy but the timing that we had envisaged will be the same like it was five and 10 years ago. We are not later, we are not earlier, but we are on time,” European Parliament President Roberta Metsola told a gathering of industry leaders in Paris on Thursday.
ELECTION UPDATES
ROMANIA — HOW TO WATCH THE ELECTION LIKE A PRO: POLITICO Europe veteran Carmen Paun makes her triumphant return to the Continent with this crucial guide to Sunday’s election (written with Victor Jack). The key question: Will Romania join the global swing to the far right?
GERMANY — PISTORIUS CLEARS WAY FOR SCHOLZ: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the country’s most popular politician, ruled himself out of leading the Social Democratic Party into an early general election, Douglas Busvine reports. That clears the path for Olaf Scholz, the most unloved chancellor in living memory — to launch a long-shot reelection bid. John Kampfner has this story on Scholz’s leadership failure.
Now listen to this: In this week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast, Gordon Repinski, POLITICO’s executive editor for Germany, and Liana Fix, Europe fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, join yours truly to unpack how domestic chaos in Berlin translates to transatlantic chaos for the rest of the bloc — and why you shouldn’t necessarily count Scholz out. Listen and subscribe here.
RADEK SIKORSKI WANTS TO BE POLAND’S PRESIDENT. Is his wife’s Trump-bashing a problem?
ICYMI … Google will stop serving political ads in the EU in 2025, it announced earlier this week, citing new transparency regulations.
RUSSIAN WAR
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia fired a new hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile into Ukraine on Thursday in response to Kyiv’s use of advanced weapons provided by the U.S. and U.K. earlier this week, marking another escalation in the intensifying war. Full details here.
Meanwhile, a North Korean general was wounded in a recent Ukrainian strike in Russia’s Kursk region, the WSJ reports. It’s the first time a senior North Korean officer has become a casualty since Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 troops to support the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
Putin’s revenge: With winter on its way, hackers linked to Russian intelligence are now targeting the EU’s energy infrastructure.
NORD STREAM 2: An American investor is quietly trying to buy the sabotaged gas pipeline, telling U.S. officials that it’d provide helpful leverage in any negotiations with Russia, the WSJ reports.
IN OTHER NEWS
ICC ISSUES ARREST WARRANT FOR NETANYAHU: The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza. The warrant means Netanyahu and Gallant could be arrested if they travel to any of the 120 countries that are parties to the ICC. U.S. President Joe Biden called the move “outrageous,” adding: “whatever the ICC might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas. We will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
WHAT THE WORLD SPENDS ON COFFEE IN 2 WEEKS COULD FEED PEOPLE FOR A YEAR: The U.N. World Food Program is launching a new global appeal for the next year to address projected unrelenting humanitarian needs driven by escalating conflicts, climate and economic shocks.
Latte math: The WFP needs $16.9 billion to feed 123 million of the hungriest people next year. That’s about what the world spends on coffee in just two weeks. “Funding is failing to keep pace,” WFP chief Cindy McCain will say in a report due later this morning.
EU puts its money where the mouths are: That funding shortfall is not the EU’s fault, according to a WFP spokesperson: “The Commission has been really consistent, year over year, with their support of humanitarian work around the world.” Report available here at 10 a.m.
MAIN OPPOSITION CHANGE IN GREECE: The socialist Pasok party became the main opposition in the Greek parliament on Thursday after more MPs defected from Syriza, Nektaria Stamouli reports. It means a return to the traditional fight between conservative New Democracy and Pasok that dominated Greek politics before 2009, when the financial crisis deflated support for mainstream parties.
Ruling party embroiled in infighting: A crisis has also erupted within New Democracy over the country’s rapprochement with Turkey, leading Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to expel his predecessor Antonis Samaras from the ruling conservatives. More here.