Von der Leyen acknowledges problem with multinationals’ tactics, in reply to PM’s letter
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged that there is problem with the pricing policies adopted by multinational companies in the European Union, in her reply on Friday to a letter sent by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on this issue before the European Parliament elections.
New blow dealt to rule of law in Albania
The decision of the Central Electoral Commission of Albania to remove Fredi Beleri from the office of mayor of Himare, to which he was elected but never sworn in, completes a 14-month cycle of irregularities by the government of Edi Rama aiming to discredit the jailed ethnic Greek, who is also an MEP representing Greece’s ruling New Democracy.
Kasselakis calls for ‘convergence,’ not full-scale alliance among center-left parties
Opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis has acknowledged the necessity of cooperation among Greece’s center-left parties while ruling out a full-scale alliance.
Greek frigate averts cluster drone attack against merchant ship at Gulf of Aden
The Greek frigate ‘PSARA’, part of the EU operation in the Red Sea (EUNAVFOR ASPIDES), averted a four-drone attack against a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden early on Sunday.
ATHEX: Stocks stay on the path of growth
Greek stocks retained their upward course on Friday, but the day’s turnover was even lower than Thursday’s, recording the smallest daily trading volume this year. Action is projected to pick up next week after the conclusion of the French elections, which appear to be holding investors back for now.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1243313/athex-stocks-stay-on-the-path-of-growth-2
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: Police reopening the “sinful” Mykonos files
TO VIMA: We are going to get thirsty
REAL NEWS: Concern regarding real estate objective values
PROTO THEMA: 4 measures to drive more unused real estate assets to the market
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: France: Plot twist
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Vive le France!
KONTRA NEWS: The Mykonos mafia has high-ranking connections
DIMOKRATIA: Impoverished Greek pensioners
NAFTEMPORIKI: “Crash test” for the attractiveness of the Athens Stock Market
Greetings from Paris, where French President Emmanuel Macron has pulled off the unthinkable: blowing up France’s political landscape twice in less than a decade. I’m Nick Vinocur, here to guide you through one of the most nerve-racking elections in my lifetime. There were gasps of surprise in POLITICO’s Paris newsroom as the results of his snap election appeared on the TV screen. What happened? Will France become ungovernable? We’ll dive into that in a moment, but first …
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrived in Beijing in the latest surprise stop on what he described in a post on X as “Peace mission 3.0.” It comes on the back of similar visits to Kyiv and Moscow, which were sharply criticized by other EU leaders (more on the fallout below). China is “a key power in creating the conditions for peace in the #RussiaUkraineWar,” Orbán tweeted. “This is why I came to meet with President Xi in Beijing.”
DRIVING THE DAY: FRANCE’S SHOCK RESULT
FRENCH LEFT TROUNCES LE PEN’S NATIONAL RALLY: In a plot twist worthy of a French political drama, the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) defied polls and expectations by beating Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s National Rally party for the top spot in France’s snap election on Sunday, winning 188 seats in France’s 577-seat National Assembly.
Key takeaway 1: With no single party or alliance able to form a majority, France is heading into weeks or months of political paralysis. Various factions will try to cobble together a coalition that will, at best, provide minimum-service government until another election is held — possibly in as little as a year.
Key takeaway 2: Le Pen and Bardella’s party fell short of an absolute majority, but their far-right National Rally is far from spent. On the contrary, it won 142 seats — more than ever before. “I have too much experience to be disappointed by a result where we double our number of MPs,” Le Pen said. “The tide continues to rise … Our victory is only postponed.”
**A message from GAIA: Animals in the EU continue to suffer. Citizens care and their institutions should too. Words are not enough. It’s time to have an EU Commissioner for Animal Welfare. Ms von der Leyen, will you propose this necessary integration in the new Commission? #EUforAnimals**
Key takeaway 3: President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist “Ensemble” coalition, given up for dead, outperformed in the snap election to arrive in second place with 161 seats. That doesn’t mean his big gamble has paid off. His group’s score likely won’t be enough to lead a government, although it does give the Macronites a role in the horse-trading that now awaits us. Dive in here for a full analysis of the voting results by Clea Caulcutt.
WHO SAID WHAT: On a night full of political fireworks, France Unbowed party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon lived up to his reputation as a firebrand bent on ending France’s hyper-presidential Fifth Republic. Declaring victory in front of screaming supporters, the former-socialist-turned-radical-leftist demanded that Macron “bend the knee” and “admit this defeat without detour.”
Ultimatum: “The President of the Republic either has to go or he has to nominate a prime minister from our ranks,” Mélenchon told supporters in his second speech of the night, reported Nicolas Camut from France Unbowed’s victory party.
Not just that: Mélenchon, whose party dominated the left-wing alliance by winning 78 seats, but is nowhere near a majority, was adamant that his group’s platform be put into action “as early as this summer” and, if necessary, “without a vote and by decree.”
ICYMI: For anyone not following closely, that means repealing Macron’s recent pension reform, raising the minimum wage and blocking prices on a range of basic goods. (More on how the rest of Europe would see such moves below.)
Popular Front, divided: No sooner had Mélenchon finished speaking than cracks started emerging in his New Popular Front — a name that harkens back to the first left-wing Popular Front, which took power before the outbreak of World War II.
Parting ways: Raphaël Glucksmann, a rising social democrat politician who represents the moderate wing of the New Popular Front, immediately split with Mélenchon. He declared that France’s next government should be led “neither by Robespierre nor Jupiter” — a thinly veiled code to say the next prime minister shouldn’t be Mélenchon (an admirer of Robespierre, architect of France’s post-Revolution “terror”) or anyone from the camp of Macron, who famously compared himself to Jupiter during his first term.
He’s baaack: Former socialist President François Hollande, who’s now a lawmaker following his victory in Corrèze, struck a similar note. “The New Popular Front does not have an absolute majority,” he said. “It has a relative majority. What it must do is to play its role and apply the necessary pressure.”
Recriminations in National Rally: Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old far-right leader who has widened his party’s footprint both in the European Parliament and France’s National Assembly, slammed what he called “the unnatural alliance” between Macron and the left to stop the National Rally’s “most important surge in its history.”
There is bound to be finger-pointing as the National Rally digests a disappointing result, but there’s also a budding rivalry between student and master — Le Pen and Bardella — that could undermine one of the most successful political partnerships in French postwar history. Read my take (with Clea Caulcutt and Sarah Paillou) on that emerging rivalry here.
The big absentee: Macron. Having upended French politics by calling the snap election, France’s president was nowhere to be seen on Sunday night.
HOW IT’S GOING DOWN IN EUROPE: EU leaders, lawmakers and diplomats voiced their relief that the National Rally did not win the elections. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk tweeted: “In Paris enthusiasm, in Moscow disappointment, in Kyiv relief. Enough to be happy in Warsaw.” German Green MEP Anna Cavazinni said, “Brussels and Berlin can breathe a sigh of relief.” A senior EU diplomat said “the worst has been avoided,” my colleague Barbara Moens writes in from Brussels.
Curb your enthusiasm: But the relief is only partial, as the election results are likely to complicate France’s stance on the European and world stage. “The big fear is that a hung parliament will lead to stagnation,” another EU diplomat said. “This is particularly a problem with regard to the French economy and public debt. All the reforms Macron and [Economy and Finance Minister Bruno] Le Maire are trying to do will then come to a halt. No reforms, national debt rises and total political paralysis.”
PODCAST DU JOUR: Yours truly hosted a special episode of our EU Confidential podcast — out this morning — with instant reaction and analysis from our team in Paris. Listen here.
PART DEUX: WHO WILL LEAD FRANCE?
RUNNERS AND RIDERS TO BECOME FRANCE’S NEXT PM: Who will become France’s next prime minister, and what sort of alliance can emerge from the rubble-strewn landscape of French politics? These are the big questions looming over Europe’s second-largest country in the wake of Macron’s big gamble.
Speculation nation: As everyone tries to make sense of the chaos, the names of several potential PMs are circulating …
— Marine Tondelier, the smooth-talking national secretary of France’s Green party. Though little known just weeks ago, she’s emerged as an ambitious figure well-positioned to strike deals with the various factions of the left.
— Boris Vallaud, formerly secretary-general of the Elysée presidential palace under Hollande, who has been biding his time in relative obscurity. But with the Socialist party now rising from its ashes, Vallaud, a contemporary of Macron’s in Hollande’s government, could emerge as a unifying figure with the clout and left-wing credentials to lead talks between parties.
— Glucksmann, the MEP known for his fight against foreign interference in the European Parliament. He’s emerged as a star of TV talk shows thanks to his brainy references and calm demeanor. But Glucksmann is also a target for Mélenchon’s troops, who clash with him over the war in Gaza.
— Olivier Faure, the statesmanlike first secretary of the Socialist Party. Speaking on Sunday, Faure made an emotional appeal for unity, at times tripping over words as he insisted that the New Popular Front’s program be applied in full. Translation: he’s extending a hand to Mélenchon’s supporters eager to see the left fully in charge.
Read this piece by POLITICO’s Victor Goury-Laffont for a full rundown of the runners and riders.
There’s a pattern here: The most frequently cited names come from the moderate wing of the New Popular Front, mainly the Socialists, which means Macron may well be dealing with a prime minister from the party he nearly destroyed in 2017.
But who will want it? The ugly truth is that whoever is prime minister faces a deeply unenviable task. He or she will have to cobble together a coalition that will probably have to extend from Macron’s centrists to the Communist Party, perhaps including some members of Mélenchon’s France Unbowed. Any compromise deal will be fragile and an easy target for extremists who will blast the prime minister as a lackey of this or that faction.
In other words, being France’s next prime minister may well be a political suicide mission.
Philippe’s warning: Commenting on the vote’s outcome, former center-right Prime Minister Edouard Philippe issued this warning: “The absence of a government would expose France to untold dangers.” He called for a governing deal that would exclude both France Unbowed and the National Rally but didn’t have much hope for its success. A deal would “stabilize the country” but would “at best allow us to handle current affairs,” not set policy.
Bah humbug: Weeks, possibly months, of paralysis. Hard-fought coalition talks in a country that is allergic to them. Strident rhetoric from the extremes. Nervous markets poised to punish France by driving up its borrowing costs. That’s the result of Macron’s big gamble.
An opportunity for Le Pen? The National Rally may not be in charge for now. But the chaos that is sure to engulf French politics may be exactly what Bardella and Le Pen want as they gear up for presidential elections in 2027.
LE PEN TO JOIN ORBÁN’S PATRIOTS
LE PEN TO JOIN ORBÁN’S NEW FAR-RIGHT GROUP IN PARLIAMENT: MEPs from the National Rally are set to join the Patriots for Europe on Monday, making the new far-right group the third-largest in the European Parliament, several people involved in the discussions told Playbook’s Eddy Wax.
Heavyweights: The 30 National Rally MEPs will become the biggest delegation inside the new Patriots for Europe, which was formed in late June and also includes MEPs from Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s party, according to two MEPs and an official from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group to which National Rally used to belong.
Sticking it to the center: If the Orbán-Le Pen group becomes the third largest in Parliament, it will be a significant blow to the centrist coalition seeking a parliamentary majority to secure a second term for Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president.
Aiming high: “We want to quickly become the third-largest party,” said Balázs Orbán, a Hungarian MP serving as political director to Viktor Orbán. (The two are not related.)
Has the center really held? A large Patriots grouping would be a significant force in Parliament, challenging a narrative that has taken hold in Brussels in recent weeks that a far-right wave failed to materialize at the June EU election.
Take that, Giorgia: If, as is widely expected, Marine Le Pen’s 30 MEPs and the eight MEPs of Matteo Salvini’s League join Patriots, the group would have 79 lawmakers — slightly more than both the liberal Renew Europe group and the hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists group led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the Polish Law and Justice party. ID had 49 MEPs in the outgoing Parliament, where it was only the sixth-largest group.
Fences/neighbors: However, the group’s power is likely to be checked by a so-called cordon sanitaire, whereby other groups will block it from holding key positions such as committee chairmanships or Parliament vice presidency roles. Read more in Eddy’s full story.
ORBÁN-MOSCOW FALLOUT
RENEW MEPS DEMAND ANSWERS ON ORBÁN MOSCOW TRIP: Eddy also writes in to report that two Renew Europe MEPs are calling on European Council President Charles Michel to come to Parliament’s first plenary session in Strasbourg next week to set out the Council’s stance on Viktor Orbán’s recent trip to Moscow.
Blindsided: Michel slammed Orbán’s trip before the plane had touched down in Russia on Friday, saying: “No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.” Now the MEPs want to hear more from the Council president.
Orbán or Michel? “Instead of allowing Orbán to appear in front of the plenary and use it for his self-promotion, we should demand that Charles Michel appears in front of the new MEPs to present the actual line of the Council,” wrote MEPs Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy and Moritz Körner in a note to their group president, Valérie Hayer.
Another platform for Orbán? The leader of the country holding the rotating presidency of the EU Council typically gets invited to the European Parliament to present the government’s program at the earliest opportunity. However, President Roberta Metsola has strongly hinted that the July plenary week will be entirely focused on electing the Commission president and other key parliamentary positions. That would delay Orbán’s moment in the Parliament spotlight to September.
IN OTHER NEWS
BIDEN LOSES MORE SUPPORT: Several more senior House Democrats called on President Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid during a private call lasting nearly two hours on Sunday afternoon, several people participating told my U.S. colleagues.
Biden tried to quash the doubts among Democrats about his candidacy over the weekend, doing an interview with ABC News and telling a crowd at a campaign event: “I’m staying in the race.” But this hasn’t satisfied the critics in the President’s party, who are running out of patience, my colleagues report.
STARK WARNING FROM STOLTENBERG: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Sunday the presence of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea at this week’s NATO summit in Washington demonstrates the world is getting more complex. “What happens in Ukraine today can happen in Asia tomorrow,” he told CBS News.
DEEP DIVE — HOW THE WORLD IS PREPARING FOR TRUMP: America’s NATO allies weren’t prepared for President Donald Trump in 2016, but they’re not making the same mistake this time. More than six months before the next American president takes office, there is already an extraordinarily advanced effort across the NATO alliance — and far beyond — to manage a potential transfer of power in America, according to this special report by journalists from POLITICO and the German newspaper Welt.
DUTCH SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE ‘ROCK SOLID’: The Netherlands’ new defense and foreign ministers visited Kyiv, where they insisted the country’s new right-wing government will stand by Ukraine, Reuters reported.