Poll shows narrowing gap between New Democracy and PASOK
A Metron Analysis poll for MEGA channel has revealed that the ruling conservative New Democracy party maintains the lead in voter preferences, though its margin over socialist PASOK has shrunk to single digits. Meanwhile, economic issues, particularly inflation, dominate public concerns.
More MPs leave SYRIZA
MP Evangelos Apostolakis announced on Thursday that he is leaving SYRIZA parliamentary group and will remain independent. Apostolakis, who had recently aligned himself with Stefanos Kasselakis, adopted criticisms against SYRIZA in his statement.
Earlier MP Yiannis Sarakiotis, elected with SYRIZA in Fthiotida, sent a letter to parliament president Konstantinos Tassoulas saying that he leaves from SYRIZA parliamentary group and becomes independent.
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/866419/Apostolakis-leaves-SYRIZA–remains-independent-MP
ESM – EFSF approves early repayment of Greek debt amounting to 7.935 billion euros
The Boards of Directors of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) agreed yesterday to waive the mandatory repayment obligation of the ESM/EFSF loans in relation to the early repayment to the lenders of the Hellenic Loan Facility , EMS and EFSF announced on Thursday.
Another near-miss puts spotlight on ailing railway system
Successive incidents on the railway tracks resulting in passenger suffering, human errors by stationmasters and train drivers, disputed debts, fines for violations of railway legislation on OSE and Hellenic Train imposed after delays, incomplete safety systems and a war climate among those involved in the railway network: This is the image that still prevails on the Greek railway, which does not seem to have changed almost two years after the tragic accident at Tempe that claimed the lives of 57 people.
ATHEX: Terna Energy dominates trading day
Thursday’s bourse session at Athinon Avenue will only be remembered for the transaction of the 67% of Terna Energy that passed on to Masdar for 1.66 billion euros. Otherwise the day was very quiet, owing to the US holiday, and the benchmark was virtually a non-mover. Friday sees the issue of the GEK Terna and Terna Energy third-quarter results, and is a half-day on the US markets.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1254833/athex-terna-energy-dominates-trading-day
KATHIMERINI: The government is set to implement subsidies worth 100 million euro for electricity
TA NEA:1.388 cameras for traffic control
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Greek economy has feet made of glass
RIZOSPASTIS: All surgery rooms in public hospitals should open to the simple folks and operate for free with adequate personnel
KONTRA NEWS: Threats by Putin regarding the transfer of Greece’s S300 missiles to Armenia
DIMOKRATIA: Vulnerable pensioners who will now pay increased contributions in drugs
NAFTEMPORIKI: Debts to Single Social Security Fund EFKA that were regulated but were never paid amount to 19,6 bln
DRIVING THE DAY: SAVED BY THE BELL
RINGING IN THE NEW COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Today, outgoing Council President Charles Michel will symbolically transfer power to President-elect António Costa by handing over the bell used to keep EU leaders in line during their official summits. Costa officially takes office on Sunday, which coincidentally is when Ursula von der Leyen’s second Commission also takes power.
À jamais, mon cher! The bell ceremony is likely to be echoed by the clinking of crystal as officials toast Michel’s exit. After five years of drama, Costa faces high expectations to restore order and dignity at a moment when international developments demand that the EU operates effectively. It’s crucial the former Portuguese prime minister works well with his counterpart in the Berlaymont.
So far, things seem to be copacetic, with the two planning to meet every two weeks to ensure they are always on the same page.
Moment of truth: Diplomats note that there’s pressure on von der Leyen to play nice: Michel was largely blamed for their feud, but if she clashes with his successor, many will wonder if the Belgian was really responsible for the bad blood. Barbara Moens and Aitor Hernández-Morales have a full report on the incoming “anti-Michel” here.
Changes ahead: Costa wants the Council to focus on strategic discussions instead of being a forum for long drafting sessions. In a move that is sure to make the new president beloved by the EU press corps, Costa also intends to limit the length of the notoriously long Council summits. He wants them to begin and end in the same 24-hour period. (Big exception: the budget talks.)
ENDING ON A HIGH NOTE: A new Eurobarometer poll due out today finds trust in the European Union at its highest point since 2007, with 51 percent saying they tend to trust it, according to a sneak peek slipped to Playbook. Six in 10 respondents said they feel optimistic about the EU. These positive figures come five months after voters elected a markedly more Euroskeptic slate of MEPs. The post-election policymaking pause has apparently been beneficial to Brussels’ reputation. More details coming around midday.
DIPLOMATIC INCIDENTS
ANGER OVER PLAN TO SHRINK EU EMBASSIES: This week’s blockbuster scoop from Barbara Moens and Jacopo Barigazzi revealing that the European External Action Service might slash some delegations in Africa, Asia and South America to beef up others is already causing major heartburn in Brussels.
Socialist MEPs want answers: Kaja Kallas doesn’t officially start as the EU’s foreign policy chief until Sunday, but lawmakers are already preparing to haul her before Parliament. Top Socialists and Democrats on the foreign affairs committee are requesting an “urgent debate” with Kallas next week. “More than ever, we need a strong EU diplomacy with more and not less funding & Human Resources!” the group said on X. (Incidentally, it’s a Socialist, the Spaniard Josep Borrell, who’s been in charge of the EEAS for the past five years, while Kallas is affiliated with the centrist Renew family.)
The news “astonished” Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, leaving him “quite worried,” he told Jacopo. “This is exactly the opposite of what we should do.”
Reform, not retreat: “We cannot reduce foreign policy … to the Global Gateway,” Rangel said from his office in Lisbon, referring to von der Leyen’s landmark infrastructure development program. “I’m not saying it is not possible to organize and to rationalize the expenditure that probably is duplicated,” he continued, but the “idea that we should retreat, that we should do some reduction of the presence of the European Union in the world, this is basically wrong.”
DRIVING THE WEEKEND: ROMANIAN ELECTION
ANOTHER TEST FOR FAR RIGHT AS ROMANIANS VOTE AGAIN: Was the shocking upset by an ultranationalist Putin admirer in last weekend’s first-round presidential election a bot-fueled fluke … or a sign that Romanians are shifting sharply to the right? This Sunday’s parliamentary election could give us a clue, Carmen Paun reports from Budapest.
Populists polling well: Călin Georgescu, who surged to first place on a wave of viral TikToks, ran for president as an independent. But the country has several growing far-right parties, including the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), which is expected to win just over 22 percent of the vote, according to a survey conducted over the past few days by the polling company AtlasIntel. The establishment center-left Social Democrat Party (PSD) polled at just over 21 percent. “People seem to be going with the sovereignist option, and they showed that they don’t accept being treated as second-tier citizens in Europe anymore,” said AUR Vice President Adrian-George Axinia.
What’s at stake: The party that wins the most votes in Sunday’s election is expected to nominate the next prime minister. If no party wins more than half of the total votes, a coalition will be required. If AUR wins, it could look to form a minority government with other far-right parties (including SOS Romania, which is run by MEP Diana Șoșoacă, who’s been ejected from Parliament for disrupting speeches and vowed to rid the institution of “devils.”)
More uncertainty: Meanwhile, the status of the presidential election is unclear. The runoff between Georgescu and liberal Elena Lasconi is scheduled for Dec. 8. However, on Thursday, the Constitutional Court ordered a recount of the first-round ballots, and judges will meet today to consider nullifying the vote. According to Reuters, the court needs to validate the first-round result by today for the runoff to happen as scheduled, but the head of the country’s election authority said it would take days to recount the 9.5 million votes currently in archives at courthouses across Romania.
TIKTOK’S RECKONING: Media regulators and election observers are zeroing in on how Georgescu — an unknown, far-right NATO-skeptic — was suddenly catapulted from obscurity, in what some politicians and experts suspect is a covert operation conducted through thousands of fake accounts. The Chinese-owned social media app denies he was treated differently from any other candidate, setting up a test of the Digital Services Act — the EU’s watershed tech regs requiring platforms to fight disinformation and election interference. Pieter Haeck, Carmen Paun, Laurens Cerulus and Seb Starcevic lay it all out in this must-read piece.
Now listen to this: Oana Lungescu, a Romanian former NATO spox, joins yours truly on this week’s episode of the EU Confidential podcast, where we talk about Georgescu’s appeal (including the role of the Orthodox Church), the conundrum of TikTok for institutions like NATO, and how Trump’s return to the White House could fuel the far-right and Euroskeptic wave spreading across the Continent.
Now laugh at this: Want to become a breakout TikTok politics star? Giulia Poloni has a tutorial in this week’s Declassified column. (First step: Become a dude, like, philosophically.)
GRADING THE COMMISSION
HOW THEY DID: While Ursula von der Leyen’s first group of commissioners pack up their offices, POLITICO’s expert policy reporters have assessed how they performed, ranging from A for excellence to F for failure. Here’s how they ranked …
Best grades: A- for antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, climate chief Wopke Hoekstra, Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius and home affairs boss Ylva Johansson.
Worst grades: F for Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi; D- for agriculture chief Janusz Wojciechowski; and D+ for Research Commissioner Iliana Ivanova.
The boss: Von der Leyen herself gets a C-. “While also criticized, her centralized decision-making helped Europe react quickly to crises.”
Read the full report card here.
PARTING SHOTS
YOLO MODE: With just days left to their jobs, top EU figures stopped worrying about offending the leaders they ostensibly represent.
HRVP Josep Borrell … Unanimity rules aren’t the problem: The EU has so often been muzzled on global issues by a single country (usually but not always Hungary) refusing to get on board with the rest of the bloc. But foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said EU rules aren’t always the problem. “I would be very happy if member states were just sticking to the treaty [requirements] about unanimity,” he said at a farewell interview hosted by the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics Thursday. Even in cases when the treaties don’t require it, Borrell said, capitals insist on unanimity, saying simply that it’s their preference. “Why do they prefer? Because at the end, everybody wants to keep their veto right. That’s the reality.”
Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson … Yeah, about those “return hubs”: Of von der Leyen’s idea to consider deportation centers in third countries during the next mandate, her outgoing migration chief said: “I think that could be quite hard.” Read more of her interview with POLITICO’s Johanna Sahlberg.
PERSONNEL DEPT.
ANGSTY TIMES IN THE SPP: It’s a nervous wait for the dozen or so spokespeople who work for the European Commission under the authority of von der Leyen and her new chief spokesperson Paula Pinho. Those who haven’t already secured their futures in commissioners’ Cabinets and want to stay in the “SPP” are still waiting to find out if they will be able to in the new era that begins Sunday — and if so, what jobs await them.
Going on the record: A sore-throated von der Leyen surprised outgoing chief spox Eric Mamer at his final midday briefing Thursday, bringing him flowers and telling him he’d become as essential to her as her morning coffee. Watch the moment here.
CABINETS FILL UP …
— Dragoș Tudorache, a former Romanian MEP, will work on tech sovereignty in the Cabinet of Commission EVP Stéphane Séjourné. He’ll be joined in the Cabinet by Arthur Corbin, who is leaving the team of French MEP Pascal Canfin in the European Parliament, as well as Head of Cabinet Bertrand L’Huillier and Deputy Head Estelle Göger.
— Saara Pokki, mertens diplomat in the Finnish perm rep and a former EU adviser to Sanna Marin, joins António Costa’s Cabinet in the institutional affairs team.
— European Commission spokesperson Veerle Nuyts is the communications adviser of Commissioner Marta Kos.
— European Commission spokesperson Johanna Bernsel will be deputy head of Cabinet to Maltese Commissioner Glenn Micallef.
IN OTHER NEWS
IT’S ELECTION DAY IN IRELAND: According to the polls, it’s going to be a tight three-way race between Prime Minister Simon Harris’ Fine Gael, Foreign Minister Micheál Martin’s Fianna Fáil and Mary Lou McDonald’s Sinn Féin. Any of them could end up as prime minister of Ireland’s next coalition government, Shawn Pogatchnik reports.
ICELAND ELECTION: Voters will head to the polls on Saturday in Iceland, with EU membership surfacing in an election campaign for the first time in more than a decade, Reuters reports. Polls show support for joining the bloc is up, with 45 percent of voters saying they’re in favor of EU membership compared to 35 percent against.
LAST NIGHT IN GEORGIA … riot police deployed tear gas and water cannon to disperse thousands of demonstrators gathered in Tbilisi to protest the government’s U-turn on its EU accession bid. “This country is returning to Russia, which we barely got rid of,” Georgia’s pro-EU President Salome Zourabichvili warned in a televised briefing. Dato Parulava has the story.
PARLIAMENT REJECTS SMOKING BAN: Things didn’t go to plan in the Parliament Thursday when MEPs failed to agree on a non-binding position on the Commission’s recommendation to countries to extend smoking bans to vapes and outdoor areas.
Smoke signals: For some, the watered-down position wasn’t strong enough on vapes; for others, it was too strong; and others still argue it’s not in the EU’s remit. This doesn’t bode well for future tobacco legislation coming down the chute this term, as Mari Eccles reports for Health Pros.
BARNIER BACKS DOWN: French Prime Minister Michel Barnier withdrew a controversial electricity tax increase in an effort to ease the budget dispute with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. Details here. Now read everything you need to know about the French political crisis, by our colleagues in Paris.
MOZAMBIQUE LATEST: French energy giant TotalEnergies welcomed a Mozambican government offer to allow an investigation into allegations of a massacre at its gas project in northern Mozambique, Alex Perry reports. It comes after POLITICO reported in September that a Mozambican military unit operating out of TotalEnergies’ gas plant herded a group of between 180 and 250 people into containers at the energy giant’s gatehouse and kept them there for three months.
SYRIA VIOLENCE: Rebel forces from the Islamist militant group Tahrir al-Sham seized towns and villages in Aleppo and Idlib. The BBC has the story, and reports more than 180 combatants and at least 19 civilians have been killed in the fighting.