PM Mitsotakis, President Erdogan agree on maintaining calm climate in bilateral relations
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed that the relative calm prevailing in bilateral relations is mutually beneficial and should continue.
North Macedonia PM uses ‘Macedonia’ in NATO summit speech
At the NATO Summit in Washington on Wednesday, North Macedonia Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski referred to his country as “Macedonia” and his government as “Macedonian.”
PM Mitsotakis reiterates support for Ukraine at Washington NATO summit
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated NATO’s support for Ukraine in his first comment upon arrival at the NATO summit in Washington on Wednesday
Supreme Court prosecutor orders investigation into so-called ‘Mykonos Mafia’
Supreme Court Chief Prosecutor Georgia Adilini on Wednesday ordered the Athens appellate court deputy prosecutor to launch an investigation into the so-called “Mykonos Mafia”, as this was dubbed by the media.
ATHEX: Stock index rises for fifth straight day
Tuesday’s mixed session on the bourse showed a lack of clear direction in the market, with banks heading lower, mid-caps closing higher and the benchmark as well as the blue chip index ending up practically unchanged. That sufficed to make it five days in a row for the benchmark’s growth, a performance not seen in three months at Athinon Avenue.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1243585/athex-stock-index-rises-for-fifth-straight-day
KATHIMERINI: The noose tightens around the Mykonos mafia
TA NEA: One-off bonus for pensioners [“efapax”] to increase
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Corrupt executives of Athens Municipality, Attica Prefecture and Culture Ministry enjoyed political protection
RIZOSPASTIS: Wildfires within cities: Incalculable disasters and… incredible threats for the people
KONTRA NEWS: Raids in Athens and Mykonos against mafias
DIMOKRATIA: UBS report on global economy: Hail poverty!
NAFTEMPORIKI: Positive omen for listed companies’ performances
GOOD THURSDAY MORNING. It’s Eddy Wax with you today and Friday.
VDL VOTE BROUGHT FORWARD: A decision will be clinched this morning to move the crunch vote on Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as Commission president forward by one hour to 1 p.m. on Thursday 18 July. Why? There are fears that MEPs will leave the chamber to fly home if it’s held too late, harming her chances of making it to 361 positive votes. It’s not exactly a great vote of confidence in MEPs! Final draft agenda exclusively here.
Europe — The Final Countdown: After 30 minutes for MEPs to vote on paper, the votes will be counted and then announced at around 2:45 p.m.
ONE WEEK TO GO: Instead of swanning around at the NATO summit in Washington, von der Leyen continued her relentless pursuit of votes in Parliament Wednesday, holding 20-minute meetings with senior MEPs in the company of her right-hand man Björn Seibert in Protocol Room One, with snacks laid out, and meeting the Greens and the Renew groups. Word is she will need another three terms as Commission president to fulfill all the promises she’s making.
OUR OWN SECRET POLL: There are two schools of thought on the secrecy of the vote on von der Leyen. Will it help or hinder her? My fellow Playbooker Sarah Wheaton is running a poll. Tell us what you think here.
ANOTHER FAR-RIGHT GROUP: 25 MEPs — including 14 from the Alternative for Germany party — formed the new Europe of Sovereign Nations group in Parliament. It’s an even more radical right formation than the new Patriots for Europe. Details here from Seb Starcevic.
IS BARNIER ACTUALLY BRITISH? French conservative heavyweight Michel Barnier refused to vote for a European Commission president, questioned the primacy of EU law, and has now praised the conduct of the U.K.’s House of Commons as inspirational after former PM Rishi Sunak graciously wished his successor well. Is the EU’s former Brexit negotiator secretly English? Next thing you know, he’ll be heard shouting “Football’s coming home!” (Which, of course, it is.)
DRIVING THE DAY
LIBERALS MAKE VON DER LEYEN SWEAT: Would Renew Europe pull the plug on Ursula von der Leyen? Almost certainly not. But the liberals are seething about how they’ve been treated in the parliamentary job trading this week. And they are twisting the screws on VDL and her Christian Democrat family, in full knowledge that she needs them for what promises to be a tight vote for reelection as Commission president.
Who blinks first? It’s a game of chicken that will go right to the wire on Monday night, by which point a deal for top Parliament jobs — if there is to be one — must be struck.
Keeping it on the straight and narrow: The bigger picture is that after months of speculation about whether von der Leyen will go vote shopping to the left or right of the centrist coalition — reaching out to the Greens or Giorgia Meloni’s ECR — it’s now clear that she’s trying to squeeze through the middle. The relatively narrow coalition she’s relying on consists of her own European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the liberals, and no one else — at least not officially.
She’s banking on getting some support from them anyway: Some ECR MEPs are likely to support her — such as the Czechs. Czech PM Petr Fiala told my colleague Jacopo Barigazzi this week that he’ll lobby for von der Leyen. As for the Greens, they’re still waiting for commitments on the 2040 climate target and 2035 combustion engine ban. Green group leaders stressed after they met with von der Leyen that negotiations are progressing well but still ongoing, my colleague Louise Guillot reported.
Meloni’s gift in disguise: “She feels half the Greens will probably vote for her anyway,” mused one MEP, who had a theory that by abstaining on von der Leyen in the Council, Italian Prime Minister Meloni made it much easier for the Socialists and Greens to back von der Leyen.
Seizing the moment: Renew is now only the fifth-largest group in Parliament, but with the coalition being limited to three groups, it is seizing its chance to up the ante.
Pascal’s law: “You can’t want the votes from Renew without committing to anything for Renew,” said French MEP Pascal Canfin, who added that there was a “huge amount of irritation” in the group. “We absolutely don’t have a good deal for Renew on the committees,” he told Playbook and Contexte in Parliament after the group met von der Leyen.
D’hondt you dare: Renew is fuming that Manfred Weber’s EPP cut what it sees as a squalid deal with ECR to take over the powerful civil liberties committee, which is in charge of the rule of law and migration. Yes, the deal stops ECR from having it, which is good in Renew’s eyes, but it’s a committee that Renew wants for itself and feels it is owed. It also wants three vice presidents in Parliament, instead of two — and a quaestor.
Block Bardella: Renew also wants EPP to give it assurances that it won’t strike deals at the Conference of Presidents — a powerful internal body that sets Parliament’s political agenda — with the far-right Patriots group, led by Jordan Bardella. On Wednesday, Renew was promised there would be no “structural coordination” with ECR.
Policies and promises: Renew wants its policies included in the Commission’s work program for 2024-2029. “Even more than that, we need trust,” Renew chief Valérie Hayer told reporters in Parliament. “We must be taken into consideration as members of this platform, and that means proof and commitments from Ursula von der Leyen and her political family, too.”
Ready to play ball: ARenew official told Playbook by WhatsApp they’re confident a deal will be struck.
Don’t even think about it: “If von der Leyen would fail we would risk [ending] up in a Europe of a lot of instability,” EPP Chair Weber said, adding that, if she failed, “there would be one man happy, and that is Viktor Orbán.”
An EPP official told Playbook: “They can try to bluff this week all this week but when push comes to shove next week they know that if they vote against von der Leyen then they’re voting against [next European Council president António] Costa and [chief diplomat candidate Kaja] Kallas.”
Ouch: “The liberals just negotiated badly in the European Parliament and are now being the sore losers,” said one EU official.
Rebel tracker: Portuguese Renew MEP João Cotrim de Figueiredo said he won’t vote for von der Leyen as things stand, and Ireland’s Fianna Fáil MEPs are getting it in the neck from Fine Gael (EPP) for their campaign pledge not to vote for her because of her policy on Israel’s war in Gaza. Slovenian S&D MEP Matjaž Nemec said he will vote no, also largely due to von der Leyen’s record on Gaza.
HUNGARY’S PRESIDENCY
EU RESPONSE IS ALL BARK AND NO BITE: At a meeting Wednesday, Hungary’s envoy to the EU, Bálint Ódor, took a verbal thrashing from his fellow ambassadors over how Budapest has kicked off its turn at the head of the Council of the EU. The meeting lasted more than two hours, with Slovakia the only country not taking the floor, my colleague Barbara Moens reports.
Slap in the face: “It’s unprecedented that the presidency would be reprimanded in such a way by all the others,” said one senior EU diplomat. Another diplomat said “it took nine days for the Hungarian presidency to lose any smidgen of trust they had left.” Read Barbara’s story here.
The Hungarian defense: At a packed press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, Hungary’s EU Affairs Minister János Bóka said Viktor Orbán’s self-declared “peace missions” to Kyiv, Moscow, Beijing and Washington “were not on behalf of the EU, these were not conducted based on a mandate from the European institutions, these were not conducted in the name of the European Union or any of its institutions.” So why do some of Orbán’s videos from his so-called peace tour bear the presidency logo?
The latest stop on Orbán’s ‘peace mission’: Just as Playbook was preparing to go to pixel, Bloomberg reported that the Hungarian PM will meet former U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Thursday.
By the way: Bóka — who offers a toned-down, professional face for the Hungarian presidency in Brussels — wasn’t always a Fidesz man. From 2004 to 2009, he worked for István Szent-Iványi, a liberal Hungarian MEP.
Words, not deeds: European capitals are struggling to go beyond public condemnations of Hungary’s rogue presidency. “In reality, the options are limited,” an EU official said. Changing the order of the presidencies or shortening Hungary’s six-month turn at the helm of the EU might have been viable at one point, but they’d be legally fraught now that the presidency is underway, the official said.
Keep calm and carry on: Not a single ambassador in the Wednesday meeting raised the possibility of scrapping the presidency, several EU diplomats said. They did raise the possibility of “practical consequences,” which was diplospeak for boycotting informal Council meetings hosted by Budapest — for example, the informal meeting of foreign ministers at the end of August.
Where’s my invite? Orbán’s Fidesz party is making a hullabaloo over the fact that the Hungarian PM wasn’t invited to present his presidency’s priorities in Strasbourg next week, as usually happens at the start of a presidency. It’s likely to happen in September, a Parliament spokesperson told Playbook’s Sarah Wheaton.
Parliament speaks up: Estonian EPP lawmaker Riho Terras is gathering signatures for a letter calling on Brussels’ top leadership to suspend Hungary’s voting rights at the EU level, in response to Orbán’s “peace mission.” Playbook saw a draft of the letter, which says: “This requires real actions … since practice has shown that mere verbal condemnations of this situation have no effect.”
PARLIAMENT TOP JOBS
WANNABE VICE PRESIDENTS: President Roberta Metsola is, as things stand, the sole candidate to lead the European Parliament again for the next 2.5 years. Things are less certain when it comes to her 14 vice presidents, who are deputy speakers but also have responsibilities for internal administration. We scooped the provisional basis for talks in Wednesday’s Playbook. Votes take place next Tuesday.
Here are the candidates that we know of so far:
For EPP (3 VP positions to fill): Poland’s Ewa Kopacz, Germany’s Sabine Verheyen and Spain’s Esteban González Pons are the official candidates.
For S&D (4): Germany’s Katarina Barley, Romania’s Victor Negrescu, Spain’s Javi López, Italy’s Pina Picierno and Denmark’s Christel Schaldemose are the official candidates.(The Socialists have named five candidates when technically allocated four, suggesting a deal has been made with the EPP to take the Patriots’ lone vice president.)
For Renew (2): Belgium’s Sophie Wilmès has declared, and there are rumors that Slovakia’s Martin Hojsík would take the second spot,and France’s Nathalie Loiseau could be interested in a third place, if they manage to nab one.
For the Left (1): France’s Younous Omarjee.
For the Greens (1): Romania’s Nicolae Ștefănuță. (Pros had it first.)
Patriots (1) and ECR (2): Playbook doesn’t know. Get in touch!
THAT’S ONE WAY TO CZECH OUT: Czech former EPP MEP Michaela Šojdrová will not be returning to her seat in the European Parliament, the Czech Supreme Court decided Wednesday. As Playbook reported on Wednesday, the ex-MEP complained about counting errors but the court ruled that not enough votes were uncounted to make a difference.
IN OTHER NEWS
BIDEN’S CANDIDACY IN PERIL: U.S. President Joe Biden’s insistence that he’s staying in the presidential race was cast into new doubt on Wednesday, as a drumbeat of Democratic lawmakers and prominent liberals challenged whether he can beat Donald Trump in November.
In case you weren’t keeping track: George Clooney, a major fundraiser for the Democrats, wrote a piece in The New York Times urging Biden to stand aside … Donors vital to Biden’s reelection campaign appeared to be withdrawing support … Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was less than enthusiastic when asked if she supported Biden … For the first time, a Senate Democrat called for Biden to drop out … And nine House Democrats in have now publicly told Biden it’s time to pull out of the campaign.
Today could be pivotal. Senior Biden aides are planning to meet with Senate Democrats on Thursday while the president will hold a rare NATO-themed press conference later in the day that will be closely watched. Biden has said he’s determined to remain in the race, he has influential allies in Congress, and his party is struggling to settle on a path forward. He could still run out the clock.
NATO SUMMIT — TRUMP TO HOLD BACK INTEL FROM EUROPE: Donald Trump is considering plans to reduce the sharing of U.S. intelligence with members of NATO, which depends on the U.S. for the type of information that has helped Ukraine fend off Russia, my colleague Erin Banco reports. It’s part of a broader plan to scale back American support and cooperation with the 32-nation alliance, according to officials familiar with the plans.
The center-left is having its moment in Washington … but it won’t last. Riding high from a landslide election victory, the U.K.’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer is enjoying a moment of progressive solidarity with other center-left western leaders at this week’s NATO summit. But he’s coming to office just as the party is winding down for some of his counterparts, my colleague Stefan Boscia writes.
Stay hopeful: Meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Biden and Starmer sought to project optimism amid the political turmoil.
NATO leaders backed Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to joining the alliance in the future, according to a summit communiqué, and were more critical of China than in statements from previous summits, referring to China as a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
THE END OF LE PEN? The French far-right leader is down after her National Rally failed to win the legislative election, and she faces an uphill battle in the 2027 presidential contest. But she’s not out yet, argues John Lichfield.
“No one won” Sunday’s vote, French President Emmanuel Macron claimed in a letter published Wednesday in the local French press. Confused? POLITICO’s Giorgio Leali explains everything you need to know about what happens next.
PRIESTS, PATRONAGE AND POWER: In Poland, Donald Tusk is going after his political enemies. Wojciech Kość has the story.
LISTEN TO THIS: The former head of the British Army has urged the U.K. and EU to agree a new defense and security pact, as the prospect of a second Trump presidency looms larger. General Sir Patrick Sanders told Power Play host Anne McElvoy: “It’s right that European members of NATO take greater responsibility for European security.” Sanders added, “It’s no secret that the U.S. are particularly focused on the potential for a confrontational conflict with China, and our role in Europe will be to shoulder some of that burden.” Listen here.