Frigate Hydra intercepts two Houthi drones in the Red Sea
Greek frigate Hydra – escorting a merchant ship, as part of the EUNAVFOR ASPIDES operation – on Thursday intercepted two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the Gulf of Aden, one of which was destroyed and the other one moved away, according to the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA).
https://www.amna.gr/en/article/814660/Frigate-Hydra-intercepts-two-Houthi-drones-in-the-Red-Sea
Greek top court bars far-right Spartiates party from EU election race
Greece’s Supreme Court banned on Wednesday the far-right Spartiates (Spartans) party from running in this year’s elections for the European Parliament, the Athens News Agency reported.
Prosecuted Independent Deputy Floros detained overnight before testifying Thursday
Criminal proceedings were initiated by an investigating prosecutor against Independent Deputy Konstantinos Floros on Wednesday after physically attacking Elliniki Lysi Deputy Vassilis Grammenos at parliament.
Privacy watchdog asks EYP to hand over full dossier on PASOK chief’s surveillance
The plenary session of the Hellenic Authority for Communications Security and Privacy (ADAE) on Wednesday addressed a request from opposition party PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis to be informed about the surveillance of his phone by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) in 2021.
Bond 11 times oversubscribed
Greece’s new 30-year bond created the second largest bid book since 2010 on Wednesday, as demand exceeded 33 billion euros, covering the €3 billion raised 11 times, with the yield at 4.241% and the coupon at 4.125%.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1237288/bond-11-times-oversubscribed
ATHEX: Minimal rise for another 13-year high
The Greek stock market continued its rise for another day, as its benchmark climbed to a new 13-year high on Wednesday, though it seemed to hit its ceiling in mid-session, when it challenged the 1,460-point level. The successful bond issue on the same day had traders try to cash in the gains of the last few sessions and led to some profit-taking that all but offset all of the day’s growth for the main index.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1237287/athex-minimal-rise-for-another-13-year-high
KATHIMERINI: The Saharan dust reached Greenland via Athens
TA NEA: Criminal-like behavior in parliament and systemic response
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Fire-protection after… 2025
AVGI: SYRIZA: The health system will be nationalized again
RIZOSPASTIS: Israel-USA-NATO-EU are the butchers of the Middle East leading to general inflammation
KONTRA NEWS: MP acts as a common thug in the likes of incarcerated Kassidiaris
DIMOKRATIA: Outrageous statement by New Democracy MEP candidate Viki Flessa regarding the Tempi fatal accident
NAFTEMPORIKI: 14 SOS tips for the new E1 tax-form
FIRST, READ THIS: If not Ursula von der Leyen, then who next to lead the European Commission?
SANCHEZ’S SURPRISE MOVE
DRAMA IN MONCLOA: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez last evening announced he may resign from government, citing right-wing attacks on his family
“I need time to reflect,” Sánchez wrote in a four-page letter posted on his X account. “I urgently need to answer a question that I keep asking myself: Is it worth it for me to remain [in office] in spite of the right and far-right’s mudslinging?”
Wife under investigation: Sánchez’s bombshell announcement came hours after a judge in Madrid launched a preliminary investigation into the PM’s wife, Begoña Gómez, over accusations that she had misused her government connections for her private business interests.
What’s next: Sánchez has suspended public duties until he announces his decision on whether or not he will resign on Monday.
Spain’s puzzled: Speculation is rife about whether Sánchez will once again resurface back at the top from a seemingly impossible situation — for example by calling for a vote of confidence aimed at re-confirming him — or whether he’ll seize the opportunity to instead angle for a job in Brussels.
“Despite the right-wing’s caricature of my person, I am not attached to this post,” he wrote in his letter Wednesday. “My commitment is to my sense of duty and public service.” Would he continue that public service in Brussels?
More popular in Brussels than Madrid: With the top jobs race in full swing, and his popularity easily higher among EU leaders than Spanish citizens, Sánchez would certainly be a strong candidate for president of the European Council, according to a very unrepresentative Playbook poll among some officials and diplomats.
But a lot depends on how he leaves and who takes over from Sánchez; will a successor be in place who would back him in Brussels?
Good timing: There’s been a big question mark about which leader Europe’s socialists could put forward for one of the top jobs. The other big socialist name which was circulating for a plum gig, Portugal’s António Costa, remains embroiled in a corruption investigation.
EU-CHINA
VON DER LEYEN HINTS AT TARIFFS ON CHINESE CARS: The EU investigation into alleged unfair subsidies for Chinese electric cars is still ongoing, but Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave a clear indication Wednesday evening that EU punitive tariffs are likely.
Campaign topic: Right at the start of her election campaign event in Karlsruhe, she said: “We like fair competition. What we don’t like is when China floods the market with massively subsidized e-cars. We are taking action against this.”
Competition yes, dumping no, said von der Leyen: “That must be our motto.” The fact that she is addressing the controversial car tariffs so clearly in her election campaign (and also in the German carmaking stronghold of Baden-Württemberg) is likely to increase speculation that the EU investigation will be completed before the European election in June and that the tariffs will come soon.
EU RAIDS TECH FIRM FOUNDED BY HU JINTAO’S SON: Officers from the European Commission have raided the Dutch and Polish branches of Nuctech, a Chinese firm specializing in security screeners once headed by Hu Haifeng, son of ex-Chinese President Hu Jintao.
The raids are part of an investigation into whether the company has received illegal subsidies — in the EU’s first such operation under the new foreign subsidies regulation.
The company confirmed the raid Wednesday, pledging to cooperate with the authorities and adding its legal department “is reviewing the case and will be able to provide more details in due course.”
Lawmakers hailed the move, saying there were prior concerns about Nuctech’s equipment at the airport in Strasbourg, the French city where members of the European Parliament gather for meetings regularly. “Finally, we have woken up,” Dutch center-right MEP Tom Berendsen wrote on X. Pieter Haeck has the full story for Pro subscribers.
TOVARISCH KRAH — THE SAGA CONTINUES: The German judiciary launched two preliminary investigations Wednesday against MEP Maximilian Krah, the lead candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, over alleged payments from Russia and China for his work in the Parliament. Pierre Emmanuel Ngendakumana has the full story here.
Pressure mounting: The proceedings add to the building pressure on Krah to step down as the AfD’s top candidate for the EU election in June. Earlier this week German police arrested one of Krah’s parliamentary aides over claims he spied for China.
MACRON’S BIG SPEECH
MACRON CENTER STAGE: French President Emmanuel Macron will this morning give a long-awaited speech on his European ambitions, ahead of discussions on the EU’s next strategic agenda.
Dual mission: But he’ll also be addressing a packed amphitheater at the Sorbonne University in Paris in a bid to boost his party’s flagging European election campaign, my colleague Clea Caulcutt reports.
Mind the gap: Macron’s Renaissance party list, led by Valérie Hayer, is struggling to mobilize voters. Renaissance is trailing the far-right National Rally, led by Jordan Bardella, by more than ten points in the polls.
Above the fray: However don’t expect Macron to start taking pot shots at Bardella and the far right. Advisers warn this is an “institutional” speech aimed at influencing talks between member countries on the mandate of the next Commission. “It’s not a campaign speech but a forward-looking speech that sets out some proposals,” said one person familiar with preparations for the speech.
Yes, but: There will be some messages aimed at galvanizing the French ahead of June’s election. According to an official familiar with preparations, the spirit of the speech is to show that France has scored an “ideological victory” in Europe. Macron’s talk of sovereignty, and strategic autonomy was deemed “rash-inducing” for some in 2017, he said. But now it’s Brussels bubble mainstream.
What’s he going to say? Europe “needs to go further than strategic autonomy” and become “powerhouse Europe,” said that same official, in the face of accelerating world crises. The French president will focus on several areas, security and defense, economy and ecology, and then values and democracy, according to several advisers.
War in Europe: The war in Ukraine will also be a “major focus” of Macron’s speech, said the first person familiar with preparations. “It’s a stress test for Europe” and on how Europeans will be able to respond to Russian aggression and shed the dependencies they’ve let develop.
Sorbonne the sequel: The speech has been dubbed “Sorbonne 2” after Macron’s 2017 policy-setting speech on Europe, and has been a long time in the making. POLITICO first reported it was being worked on in September last year.
MEDIA FREEDOM
FICO CRACKS DOWN ON INDEPENDENT PUBLIC MEDIA IN SLOVAKIA: Robert Fico’s government on Wednesday approved a controversial proposal to scrap Slovakia’s public broadcaster RTVS and replace it with what critics fear will be a mouthpiece for the government.
Implication: The government will have more control than before over the hiring of the channel’s director-general and board of directors, reports Playbook’s own Ketrin Jochecová.
The broadcaster will also be obliged to broadcast the Slovak national anthem at least once per day.
Not even hiding it: The new channel, Slovak Television and Radio (STVR), will become what the government called a “state institution.”
What’s next: The country’s parliament is expected to vote on it in June and, given Fico’s majority, the law’s expected to pass.
Commission VP Věra Jourová intervenes: Jourová told Playbook she is in Bratislava on her democracy tour to discuss increasing concerns about the safety of journalists and media freedom in Slovakia.
“I will meet Prime Minister Fico to discuss the situation in the country,” said Jourová. “I will also have a meeting with the culture minister to discuss the plans of the Slovak government regarding public service media. Public service media in all member states have to serve the public.”
Warning to Bratislava: Jourová will also stress the need to comply with the new Media Freedom Act which will soon enter into force. “EU citizens expect the EU to take strong action to protect media freedom,” Jourová said.
New data: A new 2024 Media Freedom Poll finds rising concerns in Slovakia and Hungary, with 65 percent and 62 percent of respondents respectively worried about media freedom. The new poll, covering Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will be released today.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
MANDATORY ANTI-HARASSMENT TRAINING FOR MEPs: For the first time all MEPs will be obliged to take a course in how to avoid harassing their staff after the European Parliament voted Wednesday in favor of mandatory training in Strasbourg, Eddy Wax reports. 720 MEPs will be employing thousands of assistants come the new Parliament in July.
Unenforceable: The new rules drafted by German SPD MEP Gabriele Bischoff state that MEPs won’t be able to hold powerful roles in the next Parliament unless they complete the training course within the first six months of their mandate — but there’ll be no real consequences to make that stick.
A fateful thumb: After a tight-run vote on a key amendment complicated by the fact that the S&D Italian MEP Elisabetta Gualmini appeared to accidentally instruct her MEPs to vote against it, the Parliament rejected making it possible to remove powerful positions from MEPs who merely sign up to the training but don’t end up doing it, and rejected a Green push by French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield to sanction MEPs who don’t do the training.
A la carte: Less than half of the MEPs have enrolled in the course on “how to create a good and well-functioning team” while it’s been voluntary.
GREENS’ GOODBYE GIFTS: Terry Reintke gifted her co-President of the Greens Philippe Lamberts a walnut tree (with no fertilizers) and a recipe book about marmalade (a reference to his penchant for handing out homemade jam) at a send-off thrown in the European Parliament last night, as he bid farewell after 15 years as an MEP, Eddy also reports.
Lamberts leaves the Parliament as one of the most respected MEPs across party lines.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE
UKRAINE STRIKES OIL INFRASTRUCTURE IN RUSSIA — AGAIN: Ukrainian drones destroyed two fuel depots in Russia’s Smolensk region in the early hours of Wednesday, my colleague Veronika Melkozerova reports from Kyiv.
Defying America: U.S. officials including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have urged Ukraine to stop hitting Russian oil refineries, arguing the attacks risk destabilizing global markets.
Ukraine defiant: “The SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] continues to effectively destroy the military infrastructure and logistics that provide fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine. These objects are and will remain our legitimate targets,” the Ukrainian official told POLITICO.
NOW READ THIS: The Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time in the two-year war — and Kyiv has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines. My U.S. colleagues Alex Ward and Lara Seligman have more here.
IN OTHER NEWS
AIRLINE OLIGOPOLY DREAMS: Competition keeps falling out of fashion in the EU as politicians increasingly see it as their task to lobby for mergers over concerns for consumers.
Case in point today: Italy’s Finance and Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti will today meet EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager to discuss Lufthansa’s planned purchase of a stake in the Italian state-owned carrier ITA Airways, a spokesperson for the Italian minister told my colleague Giovanna Faggionato.
Friday deadline: Both the Italian and German governments are pushing to get the deal through. On Friday, the companies face a deadline for concessions.
MACRON’S OLYMPIC NIGHTMARE: France’s nervousness about the Olympic Games is reaching fever pitch, as the country debates possible terrorist attacks.
Security services on high alert: The resurgence of Islamic State-linked terror groups and Russian-backed cyberattacks have put French authorities on high alert. The country’s security apparatus fears the grand opening on the River Seine could turn into a nightmare, my colleagues Antoaneta Roussi and Victor Goury-Laffont report. Read the full story here.
MEPS’ GIBRALTAR SWIPE ANGERS DOWNING ST: The U.K. government’s not happy after the EU’s latest Brexit swipe — this time over sanctions. MEPs voted yesterday to block Gibraltar’s removal from the EU’s dirty money watchlist, arguing that there is “important and recent evidence” suggesting the British overseas territory could be facilitating the evasion of sanctions against Russia. Read Kathryn Carlson’s story here.
UK hits back: A spokesperson for the U.K. government said it was “completely inaccurate and unsubstantiated to suggest Gibraltar is undermining sanctions efforts against Russia.”
Awkward: The allegation is not the only thing that Brits aren’t best pleased about. A second European Parliament resolution, put forward by the right-wing ECR group and voted down in plenary, referred to Gibraltar throughout as a “colony.”
The timing’s not great. The U.K. and EU are in the final stages of negotiations for a post-Brexit deal on Gibraltar, which was left out of the main 2020 deal. The U.K. government spokesperson said it “reject[s] the outdated characterization” of Gibraltar as a colony.
NORTH MACEDONIA HEADS TO RUNOFF VOTE: North Macedonia heads to a presidential runoff vote after no candidate got more than 50 percent to win outright in Wednesday’s first round of balloting. However, the vote showed a strong shift in favor of the candidate backed by the conservative main opposition coalition, VMRO-DPMNE. With 85 percent of the vote counted Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova was leading with 40.1 percent of the support, while incumbent Stevo Pendarovski, backed by the ruling socialist SDSM party got 19.7 percent of votes. The runoff vote will take place on May 8, together with national elections, which could define the country’s EU trajectory.