National issues, cost of living to dominate the weekly agenda
Just three weeks away from the European elections, political leaders are intensifying their pre-election campaigns, touring around the country.
PM Mitsotakis: ‘Global community should officially recognize Genocide of Pontian Greeks’
The international community should officially recognize the Genocide of the Pontian Greeks, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Sunday (May 19), Remembrance Day of the Pontian Genocide.
Skertsos confirms PM’s letter to EC on multinationals
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will attempt to set in motion a European Union response to pricing policies that are driving prices in Greece higher than in richer EU countries, Minister of State Akis Skertsos confirmed in a social media post on Friday.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1239038/skertsos-confirms-pms-letter-to-ec-on-multinationals
Greek and Egyptian foreign ministers to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues in Athens
Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs George Gerapetritis will meet with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Athens on Monday at noon.
The meeting is expected to focus on the strategic bilateral relations between the two countries. Diplomatic sources indicate that it will involve preparations for the first high-level Greece-Egypt cooperation council.
ATHEX: Bourse ends week with small decline
The final bourse session of last week offered mixed feelings to observers, as the rise of banks did not suffice to see the benchmark hold on to its early gains that had temporarily taken it above the 1,500-point milestone. However, the losses eventually recorded were marginal and the index remained in positive territory for a second week in a row.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1239043/athex-bourse-ends-week-with-small-decline
SUNDAY PAPERS
KATHIMERINI: The “message inbox” of the Mafia
TO VIMA: Europe in quicksand
REAL NEWS: Wave of complaints regarding illegal occupation of beaches
PROTO THEMA: Mitsotakis’ letter to Von der Leyen: “Multinationals have too much power and are eating away the income of citizens”
AVGI: Tempi rail crash, price hikes, healthcare, wiretappings: The lies of the Mitsotakis regime
MONDAY PAPERS:
TA NEA: Who is afraid of the vaccines…
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Greece faces the hazard of demographic collapse
KONTRA NEWS: The PM confessed his failure in combating price hikes
DIMOKRATIA: A government moving in the shadows
NAFTEMPORIKI: “Triathlon” regarding the reduction of the state debt
IRAN LATEST
IRAN’S PRESIDENT AND FOREIGN MINISTER DIE IN HELICOPTER CRASH: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian are presumed dead after the helicopter they were traveling in crashed in difficult terrain as they were returning from a trip to Azerbaijan.
Raisi, once seen as a potential successor to 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Amir-Abdollahian and all other passengers on board have been “martyred,” Iran’s Mehr news agency reported. All the latest here, with updates as we get them.
On the scene: The Iranian branch of the Red Crescent humanitarian network said in the early hours of this morning that its search and rescue teams had reached the crash site and “found no signs of the helicopter’s occupants being alive.” Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem has posted images on X reportedly showing the crash site.
What happens now? Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, told state TV before the wreckage was found that “the people of Iran must not be anxious or worried” and that there would be no disruption to the country’s governance. But with Raisi dead, the question now is who might succeed him.
What’s next: According to Iranian law, if a president dies in office, the first vice president takes power and an election is called within 50 days. Iran’s first vice president is the conservative Mohammad Mokhber — more about him in a moment.
Fuel to the fire: The crash comes at a particularly tense moment, just after U.S. diplomats held talks with Iran via proxies to avert a wider war in the Middle East. It raises the stakes at a time when Israel is pressing ahead with an offensive in Rafah, in the south of Gaza, and Tehran continues to support proxy forces including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
OUTRAGE OVER EU ‘SOLIDARITY’ WITH IRAN: As countries in Iran’s neighborhood lined up to offer assistance locating the crash site, the European Commission’s crisis commissioner, Janez Lenarčič, chimed in. He announced on X that the EU was activating its Copernicus emergency satellite mapping service to help find the downed helicopter. He ended his tweet with the tag #EUSolidarity — prompting an immediate backlash.
Tone deaf: A Commission official, who asked not to be named, noted that the tweet was consistent with the EU’s guidelines on humanitarian aid, but said they personally found the expression of solidarity “odd.” Dozens of tweets struck the same note, pointing out Raisi’s role in the execution of thousands of Iranians, Iran’s sponsorship of terror, the use of Shahed drones to terrorize Ukrainian civilians and its detention of Swedish EU official Johan Floderus.
‘Mockery’: “It is an absolute mystery to me how the EU Commission can show #EU solidarity with Iran. What a miserable hashtag, what a mockery of the brave fighters for human rights in Iran. I expect an explanation for this,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, one of the liberals’ lead candidates for the European Parliament election, tweeted.
Hannah Neumann, a German Green MEP, wrote: “How about ensuring Human Rights Defenders and other victims of the regime in need of assistance get emergency visas for the EU?”
Retweeted by Borrell: Lenarčič’s tweet was reposted by the EU’s top envoy, Josep Borrell, but not by the European Commission’s account or by Ursula von der Leyen (who as of Sunday night hadn’t commented on the reports). A Commission spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment late Sunday.
WHO IS MOHAMMAD MOKHBER? Raisi’s potential successor is a longtime regime loyalist. At 69, Mokhber is a former officer in the Revolutionary Guard Corps and former head of Setad, a powerful economic organization controlled by the Supreme Leader. According to a 2013 Reuters investigation, Setad amassed a business empire worth about $95 billion at the time, based in part on assets seized from religious or other minorities and Iranians living abroad. It was, Reuters said, a pillar of the Supreme Leader’s enduring power.
Sanctioned: Mokhber, who was in charge of Setad from 2007 to 2021, was placed on an EU sanctions list in 2010 due to alleged involvement in nuclear and ballistic missile activities. He was removed from the list two years later. In 2021, he was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for his role as a senior executive.
Ukraine war role: Mokhber, who served as an officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s medical arm, is also known for his role in selling Iranian Shahed drones to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.
RULE OF LAW
PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW — POLISH MINISTER WARNS DUDA COULD VETO JUSTICE REFORMS: Poland’s President Andrzej Duda could yet stand in the way of plans by the new Civic Platform-led government to restore the rule of law, the country’s European Union Minister Adam Szłapka said in a written interview with Playbook.
Background: After Donald Tusk was elected prime minister last year, Poland’s new government proposed nine reforms geared at reestablishing the independence of the country’s judicial branch, namely by undoing measures that allowed the government to punish judges over legal decisions. Poland has been under a so-called Article 7 sanctions procedure for rule-of-law violations since 2017 — one of only two countries, alongside Hungary, to face this procedure.
‘No longer clear risk’: This month, Commission President von der Leyen announced the EU executive intended to close the Article 7 procedure. The Commission considers that there is “no longer a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland,” the Commission said in a May 6 statement.
But but but: Tusk’s reforms are subject to a veto by Duda, Poland’s president, a relic of the previous Law and Justice government that prompted the Article 7 procedure. Asked if Duda would veto the bills snaking their way through the legislative system, Szłapka said via e-mail: “I assess the risk of veto as quite high.”
Overcoming Duda’s red lines: “The rulings of the ECJ or the European Tribunal of Human Rights have been regularly rejected or criticized by the people from the circles of the Law and Justice party,” Szłapka said. “President Duda has publicly talked about his red lines. So, it is not going to be easy, but we have to try … This is why also in parallel we are taking practical decisions aiming at respecting the EU law and eliminating the risks for the rule of law, like for instance changes in the disciplinary regime of the Supreme Court judges. No judge will be chased and bullied for political reasons. These times are over.”
Anytime now: Given the uncertainty, Szłapka noted he could not say when the Article 7 procedure would be formally lifted. “We will have a discussion at the [General Affairs Council] on Tuesday and then I expect [Commission Vice President Věra Jourová] will launch the decision sooner rather than later,” he said.
Sneak peek at Weimar plan: With the EU election less than three weeks away, Szłapka said France, Germany and Poland — the trio known as the Weimar triangle — would present an initiative against foreign interference at the GAC. Stay tuned for more on this.
“Russia and other foreign regimes are using propaganda and disinformation as a weapon, and we need to boost our resilience,” Szłapka said, echoing von der Leyen’s warning in Copenhagen last week that Europe wasn’t equipped to fight foreign influence.
Slovak warning: Days after an assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Playbook asked Szłapka how to take the heat out of a political climate that has become highly polarized. “We should pay bigger attention to words, as in extreme cases words can lead to violence,” he said. Referring to the new Polish government’s state media reforms, Szłapka said the goal was to combat the use of “hate, lies and false accusations against political opponents of a government or against minorities.”
His verdict on the EU’s rule of law push: Playbook asked Szłapka if the Commission’s use of coercive measures had effectively dealt with the challenge from Law and Justice. His view was that it has been positive — though he also argues Brussels has been too keen to strike a compromise, rather than exert maximal leverage. “For instance, when it comes to the Recovery Fund, the Commission has put minimalistic criteria that would not have changed much, in a hope to find a compromise with the Law and Justice government. The only reason this did not happen were divisions within the government.”
People power: “The real change in Poland is possible due to the determination of the Polish people,” Szłapka concluded.
LATEST ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
PRESSURE BUILDING ON NETANYAHU: Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas across Gaza on Sunday, with the Associated Press reporting that one airstrike killed 27 people, mostly women and children. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan to discuss the situation in Rafah.
But the big story over the weekend was the growing concern in Netanyahu’s wartime “unity” government that he has no clear end goal. It’s looking as though the walls are closing in on the ultra-conservative Israeli leader, with two ministers in recent days publicly criticizing his lack of a strategy for ending the conflict with Hamas.
ICYMI — Gantz breaks from Bibi: Speaking at a press conference on Saturday night, former Israel Defense Forces general Benny Gantz said he would step down from the war cabinet if a plan for installing a civilian administration in the Hamas-controlled territory wasn’t in place by June 8. POLITICO’s Gabriel Gavin has a write-up here.
Change tack — or else: “If you put the national over personal, you will find in us partners in the struggle,” Gantz warned Netanyahu. “But if you choose the path of fanatics and lead the entire nation to the abyss, we will be forced to quit the government.”
Not the first to speak out: On Wednesday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called on the prime minister to publicly confirm that Israel will not take over rule of the Gaza Strip militarily and urged him to start making preparations to hand over to a civilian Palestinian administration.
But don’t discount Netanyahu quite yet. As some analysts have pointed out, Gantz and Gallant are both treading carefully, stopping short of resigning outright. Even if they did resign, it’s not clear Netanyahu couldn’t continue to govern without them, as long as he retains the support of ultra right-wingers in the Knesset.
BIDEN CALLS FOR ‘IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE’: U.S. President Joe Biden used a commencement speech at Morehouse College, a historically Black, all-male college in Atlanta, to address the “humanitarian crisis” in Gaza. As my colleague Lauren Egan reports, Biden told graduates he is pushing for “an immediate cease-fire” to “stop the fighting” and “bring the hostages home.” He called for a “two-state solution” and deplored the violence on Oct. 7.
It was the first time Biden had addressed Gaza on a college campus since American universities became the epicenter of pro-Palestine protests, but the president faced no memorable disruptions and even received muted applause.
Meanwhile, Blinken is peeved about classified leaks … Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken directed his top staff to crack down on leaks about diplomacy relating to the Israel-Hamas war, saying clearly that he was “angry” with the constant stream of press reports revealing sensitive information.
IN OTHER NEWS
SCOOP — US MULLS GEORGIA SANCTIONS: While the EU struggles to work out its plan for if the foreign agent law passes, U.S. lawmakers are already considering imposing financial restrictions and visa bans on Georgian Dream lawmakers, according to a draft bill obtained by my colleague Gabriel Gavin. Read more here.
FAR RIGHT KICKS OFF: Europe’s far-right political parties unofficially launched their campaign for the EU election on Sunday, using a rally organized by Spain’s right-wing opposition party Vox to attack illegal migration and climate policy and to pledge support for Israel’s military action in Gaza.
Who was there: Among the leaders who delivered addresses by video to the crowd in Madrid were Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and French National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen. Vox’s President Santiago Abascal called for right-wing unity to create a “global alliance of patriots in defense of common sense, economic prosperity, security and freedom.”
International incident: Argentinian President Javier Milei used his speech to escalate a row with Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, again making derogatory comments about the Socialist prime minister’s wife. Spain recalled its ambassador to Argentina and its foreign minister demanded an apology from Milei, Reuters reported.
EU’S UKRAINE POT ALREADY RUNNING LOW: In February, the EU set up a €50 billion fund to prop up Ukraine’s economy until 2027, after weeks of tortuous negotiations. But that wasn’t the end of the story. European capitals are slowly realizing they’ll soon be on the hook for a lot more — and that’s why Brussels is now looking for alternative ways to drum up money for Ukraine. Read the full story by Gregorio Sorgi here.
No time to waste: Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. said Sunday her nation needs as much weaponry as possible to arrive as soon as possible. “There is no such thing as fast enough when we are up against such a bad enemy, and we have to catch up for a long pause,” Ambassador Oksana Markarova said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Don’t worry about escalation: Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told the Financial Times that NATO allies shouldn’t fret that sending troops to Ukraine to train its soldiers would drag the alliance into a wider war with Russia. Training personnel being attacked by Russian forces wouldn’t automatically trigger the Article 5 mutual defense clause, Kallas said.
HOW AI IS POWERING COMBAT IN UKRAINE: Outmatched in manpower and matériel in its war against Russia, Ukraine has had to make up for its deficiencies with ingenuity, famously mastering the use of drones on the battlefield. Now it’s looking to artificial intelligence to help defeat radar jamming, by programming drones that can lock onto their targets and deliver payloads without using radar. Read this gripping deep-dive from the cutting edge of war technology by Gian Volpicelli, Veronika Melkozerova and Laura Kayali.
COUNCIL OF EUROPE ADOPTS AI TREATY: The Council of Europe, which includes 46 countries including non-EU members, has adopted the world’s first treaty on AI, which will address the risks and promote “responsible innovation,” the Strasbourg-based body said in a press release.