Party leaders are taking center stage
As the country enters the final stretch before the European elections on June 9, the constantly sharpening confrontation between ruling New Democracy and main opposition parties SYRIZA and PASOK is shifting to the level of political leaders.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/politics/1239459/party-leaders-are-taking-center-stage
North Macedonia election winner insists on calling country ‘Macedonia’
The prime minister-elect of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, referred anew to his country as “Macedonia” in a social media post on Wednesday.
SYRIZA leader promises to restore ‘bonus’ salaries in public sector
Opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis on Wednesday vowed that if he were elected to office, he would restore the 13th and 14th salaries paid to public sector workers prior to the economic crisis as extra holiday pay.
Strong investment interest in 10-year Greek government bond; yield at 3.51%
According to the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA), the bids exceeded by approximately 3.5 times the auction amount of 250 million euros, reaching 835 million euros.
ATHEX: Second day of decline for stocks
The Athens bourse on Wednesday remained on the downward course it started on Tuesday, coming off Monday’s 13-year highs. This was in line with the negative mood in the rest of the eurozone’s stock markets. Trading was dominated by the share packages of the Mytilineos group (just over 5% of its shares ahead of its London listing to come) that sent turnover soaring on the day.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/economy/1239417/athex-second-day-of-decline-for-stocks
KATHIMERINI: Greek students’ “Waterloo” in the PISA exams
TA NEA: Less tax for entrepreneurs
EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: Public Employment Service (DYPA): Ludicrous behavior and panic
AVGI: Blood trade allowed by the Ministry of Health
RIZOSPASTIS: The Greek Communist Party’s university fraction won the elections for the third consecutive year
KONTRA NEWS: Frontal collision between Kasselakis – Androulakis
DIMOKRATIA: Star Wars have begun
NAFTEMPORIKI: Everyone’s tax declaration form will be submitted automatically
TOP JOBS RACE KICKS OFF
MEET THE FRONTRUNNERS FOR THE NEXT COMMISSION: The EU election is now only two weeks away, and that means the European Commission’s top jobs will soon be up for grabs again. Maneuvering is underway in the 27 capitals, which each get one commissioner in the College. POLITICO today brings you the names in the mix, the likely contenders and long shots, and the portfolios they’re gunning for. Read the full story here. Playbook’s highlights …
Top names to watch: Poland’s Radek Sikorski is the frontrunner for a defense or foreign affairs portfolio. Latvia’s Valdis Dombrovskis could get another big economic role. Spain’s Ecological Transition Minister Teresa Ribera is hoping for a major Green Deal, climate and energy job.
The other portfolios to look out for: Competition and trade — the two exclusive EU competencies where the Commission has the most direct power.
The eyebrow-raiser: Italy’s Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, who also happens to be the brother-in-law of PM Giorgia Meloni, is among those in the frame to take the country’s spot at the top table, currently held by Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni.
MEANWHILE, IN WEIMAR: The foreign ministers from France, Poland and Germany gathered Wednesday in Weimar, Germany, to discuss the next mandate of the Commission. My colleague Clea Caulcutt, who was traveling with France’s Stephane Séjourné in the Republic’s Falcon 900, reports talks were dominated by Ukraine, EU defense … and, of course, the next commissioners.
The main takeaway: The three want to coordinate to strengthen the role of the next EU foreign affairs chief, according to a joint statement. They also want to make EU sanctions more effective by creating an integrated Commission/EEAS sanctions team.
Triangulation: According to Séjourné, the Weimar format is “key to the post-election phase because it includes all the pro-European families,” gathering politicians from Renew, the Greens and the EPP (parties that backed Ursula von der Leyen for the Commission presidency). They want to get their ducks in a row.
If it ain’t bust why break it? France (and others) don’t want to tie themselves to von der Leyen for a second term. Publicly France has signaled some distance, and privately several French officials say Macron would prefer his old friend Mario Draghi at the helm (loooong shot). That said, the mood in Paris is also that French ideas have flourished under von der Leyen.
The message matters: But in French minds, it’s not just about getting the right people. “How the casting and the architecture of the new Commission will be read [by observers] matters in the negotiations, because it will set the perception of its political orientations,” said Séjourné. Translation: Everyone wants to back a winner.
Rome’s role: Italy’s Meloni has been playing a deft game, building bridges with von der Leyen, and seeking to position herself as the deal-maker. And not everyone is happy with that. “Everybody’s saying that Italy’s the kingmaker but Meloni’s strategy won’t matter in the end,” said an EU diplomat.
EUROBAROMETER SNEAK PEEK
EXCLUSIVE — EUROPEANS WANT MORE DEFENSE COOPERATION: Eighty percent of respondents to the latest Eurobarometer survey said they want cooperation in defense matters to be increased at the EU level, according to results shared in advance with Playbook.
Feeling more European: The latest Eurobarometer, which will be published this afternoon, polled 26,399 people across the 27 EU countries. Seventy-four percent said they think of themselves as EU citizens — the highest level recorded, and 2 percentage points higher than when they were asked in winter 2023. Maybe the troubled international climate is making Europeans feel more connected? It certainly wasn’t Eurovision …
Top of voters’ minds: The cost of living remains the dominant concern for Europeans at a personal level, with 51 percent highlighting it — although that was down 6 percentage points on the survey in winter 2023.
Worries about Ukraine are increasing: Thirty-five percent of respondents said the conflict in Ukraine is their top concern at the EU level, up 7 percentage points on the winter 2023 survey. The number of respondents saying they support current measures to aid the war-stricken country, such as the supply of military equipment, was unchanged at 60 percent.
GAZA
BIDEN OFFICIALS SEEK EU HELP TO REOPEN RAFAH CROSSING: The Biden administration wants to bring in the EU to take control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, my Stateside colleagues report.
The plan: U.S. officials for weeks worked behind the scenes, brokering talks between Israel and Egypt, to strike a deal that would put the EU Border Assistance Mission to Rafah in charge of the Rafah crossing and significantly improve the flow of aid into the enclave, a senior Biden administration official and another person familiar with the matter told Erin Banco.
Humanitarian crisis: The crossing has been closed since Israel moved into Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, putting more pressure on the remaining crossing points and making it harder for food and other aid to enter the occupied Palestinian enclave.
Egypt and Israel disagree over who should oversee the crucial entry point: Egypt has said it wants Gazans who used to run the crossing to return. Israel has argued that another group should take over, given the old one included members of Hamas.
A compromise? The EU mission could be an alternative that is acceptable to both Israel and Egypt. But it would also put enormous pressure on the EU, making it responsible for one of the world’s most sensitive borders during an invasion, through which hundreds of thousands of people could attempt to flee and weapons could be smuggled.
Background: The mission, created by the EU Council, previously worked at the border in Gaza but suspended its operations in 2007 after Hamas took over the territory. Since then, it has been in “stand-by mode.”
And speaking of Egypt — ICYMI: Egyptian intelligence secretly changed the terms of a cease-fire proposal that Israel had already signed off on earlier this month, killing the deal, CNN reported Wednesday. Egypt denies the report.
PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD — HOW EUROPEAN ALLIES TRIED TO MOLLIFY THE WHITE HOUSE: The Biden administration wasn’t happy when Spain, Norway and Ireland announced they were recognizing a Palestinian state on Wednesday … but it wasn’t blindsided.
According to my colleagues Matt Berg, Shawn Pogatchnik and Nahal Toosi, European officials discussed the move with their American counterparts in the days leading up to the announcement. The White House strongly disagreed with their stance but “accepted it as an inevitable development,” in the words of one Irish official, and so there was no real pushback.
Meanwhile, France defends decision not to recognize Palestine: At the foreign ministers’ meeting in Weimar, French Foreign Minister Séjourné said recognizing a Palestinian state is not “taboo,” but the timing isn’t right. Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, whose country is not in favor of recognition, said the focus should be “on political solutions” and “concrete talks.”
ROAD TO EU ELECTION
CALL TO PROTECT MEDIA FREEDOM IN ITALY: A coalition of journalism and media organizations wrote to Commission Vice President Věra Jourová on Monday urging Brussels to launch an investigation into whether the Meloni government is restricting journalists’ freedom to report independently on the political process.
The claims: The letter, obtained by Playbook, accused the administration of “egregious attempts to silence dissent and seize control of public media” that are counter to EU and democratic values. “We call upon you to ensure a level playing field during the campaigns for the European Parliament elections to allow for the fair and equal participation of all the different political forces in the media,” said the groups, which included the European Federation of Journalists, the International Federation of Journalists and the European Movement.
Public media, not propaganda: Their appeal comes after journalists at Italy’s state broadcaster RAI went on strike this month claiming Meloni was “attempting to turn RAI into a mouthpiece for the government.” Meloni’s administration has denied the accusations.
Brussels’ hands are tied: Commission officials contacted by Playbook said they take complaints about press freedom seriously. However, because the Media Freedom Act only applies from August next year, the Commission can’t yet launch an investigation. They pointed to the annual rule of law report, in which the Commission urged Italy to protect the editorial and financial independence of public service media.
AFD’S KRAH WITHDRAWS FROM CAMPAIGN AFTER SS REMARKS: Maximilian Krah, the controversial lead candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said Wednesday he will stop campaigning in the EU election and step down from the party’s leadership board.
ICYMI: Krah faced a backlash after he told the Italian daily La Repubblica he would “never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal,” a reference to German novelist Günter Grass, who admitted late in his life to having joined the Waffen-SS as a teenager. Krah’s remarks prompted France’s National Rally, the party of Marine Le Pen, to declare it wouldn’t sit alongside the AfD in the next European Parliament. My colleague Eddy Wax explains what the far-right schism means.
DUTCH GOVERNMENT
WHO WILL BE THE NEXT DUTCH PM? The four parties forming the new right-wing government in the Netherlands will today discuss who will become the country’s next prime minister.
Difficult dynamics: Normally, the leader of the biggest party gets the top job, but Geert Wilders’ harsh views on migration, Islam and Europe make the far-right Freedom Party leader unacceptable to his coalition partners from the outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the centrist New Social Contract and the populist Farmer Citizen Movement.
Also out of the running: As Playbook mentioned on Tuesday, rumors swirled that Ronald Plasterk, a former Labor Cabinet minister who brokered an early round of talks between the coalition partners, would be the next PM … but he ruled himself out after questions were raised about historic business dealings (he denied wrongdoing).
Place your bets: Names now circulating for the top job are Mona Keijzer, the No. 2 in BBB, and Kim Putters, a former member of the Dutch senate who facilitated the second round of coalition talks. A recent poll of Netherlands Radio 1 listeners showed there was also popular support for Rotterdam’s long-time Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb. But both Putters and Aboutaleb are Labor members.
IN OTHER NEWS
BERLIN’S UKRAINE FLOP: Germany responded to Ukraine’s call for more air defenses by promising to send some of its own systems and marshalling help from other allies — but almost no one else is following its lead, report POLITICO’s Joshua Posaner and Paul McLeary.
NAVALNY MURDERED, ALLY SAYS: Alexei Navalny was murdered on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the late opposition leader’s former chief of staff Leonid Volkov told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast.
NOW READ THIS: Edit Zgut-Przybylskaexamines the Kremlin’s growing influence in Viktor Orbán’s Hungary in this opinion piece for POLITICO.
UN SREBRENICA VOTE: The U.N. General Assembly is preparing to vote on a resolution recognizing the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide later today. Serbia has launched a full-blown diplomatic offensive to block the initiative, Una Hajdari reports.
BRITAIN’S NEXT PRIME MINISTER? He’s a lawyer first and foremost. Methodical. Professional. Good on detail but lacking in flair. But opponents have learned to their cost that there’s more to Keir Starmer than meets the eye. POLITICO’s Dan Bloom profiles the Labour leader who is on track to become the U.K. prime minister at the general election on July 4. Stefan Boscia grapples with Rishi Sunak’s surprise decision to go to the polls this summer.
MACRON IN NEW CALEDONIA: While you were sleeping, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the Pacific territory that has been gripped by deadly rioting. Speaking to reporters before meeting local officials, Macron said his priority was to “return to peace, calm and security as soon as possible” and promised “decisions will be taken and announcements will be made” by the end of the day. He said French forces would stay in New Caledonia as long as necessary.
HALEY BACKS TRUMP: One-time U.S. presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said she will vote for Donald Trump in the November ballot.