Harris in the German press' spotlight +++ EU foreign ministers split over Hungary and Syria
Tuesday 23rd July
Good morning.
Kamala Harris has achieved a near-clean sweep of the front pages in Germany this morning. The mood now seems to be one of quiet optimism that Harris can take Trump on, especially given the speed with which the Democratic establishment (and donors) seems to be falling in behind the Vice President.
For instance: Handelsblatt’s newsletter this morning says that Biden’s withdrawal is “not good news for Trump” and that, after months of lambasting him for his age, the Republican candidate might want to remember the saying: “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”. There is also still a sense of anxiety and under-preparedness for all eventualities, now that the race is ‘wide open’ again.
Rheinische Post: “The consequences of Biden's withdrawal for Germany”
As this article from the regional daily Rheinische Post suggests, politicians of all stripes in Berlin, attempting to prepare for “all imaginable possibilities”, are reportedly suffering from a lack of connections on both sides of the aisle in Washington. For this reason, the RP says, the SPD’s Chair Lars Klingbeil and CDU foreign affairs expert Jürgen Hardt are planning to travel to Chicago for the Democratic Convention next month.
The article also quotes two of the CDU’s ‘transatlantic’ experts:
Peter Beyer, ‘transatlantic coordinator’ for the German government from 2018 to 2022, who says that “For too long, the Federal Chancellor has focused on his friend Joe Biden. That is now starting to bite him."
Thomas Silberhorn (CSU), parliamentary spokesman for transatlantic relations for the CDU/CSU, also called for Germany to have "reliable personal contacts with the Republicans' defence and trade experts", which the German government "does not have".
FAZ Brussels correspondent: EU foreign ministers split over Hungary and Syria
The FAZ’s man in Brussels, Thomas Gutschker, has filed two excellent reports concerning a meeting of the Council of EU foreign ministers in Brussels last night.
The first concerns demands made by 8 EU states (Greece, Italy, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria and Cyprus) that the bloc should take a new approach to Syria based on ‘substantial dialogue’, and recommended the appointment of an EU special envoy for Syria to meet with ‘all parties’. The initiative for this move, Gutschker says, came from Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Austria’s Alexander Schallenberg. In a joint written contribution to the meeting, the two said that
"After thirteen years, we have to admit that the EU's approach has not kept pace with the evolution of the situation on the ground. Our policy objectives date back to 2017 and they have not aged well."
The obvious reason for this change in tack is migration. The SPD has also spoken loudly about the possibility of repatriating Syrian (and Afghan) migrants, but has so far been silent on how such as scheme could be set up without resuming contact with the Assad regime. Berlin may be hoping to rely on others in the EU to do its dirty work for them.
The second part of Gutschker’s account of the meeting was a return to an issue mooted last week: whether Hungary would be ‘punished’ for PM Orbán’s ‘peace mission’ to Moscow and Beijing. EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell had been keen to embarrass the Hungarians by calling a formal meeting of EU foreign ministers at the same time as an informal ‘Gymnich’ meeting planned to take place in Budapest. After hours of debate, Borrell was defeated by “around ten member states, including all the major ones (Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands)”. Annalena Baerbock is understood to have argued that Budapest should keep its meeting to avoid Orbán ‘playing the victim’.
A further interesting detail from Gutschker: a third option was also discussed, namely holding the Foreign Affairs Council in Ukraine.
“ However, this would only have been possible unanimously - which Szijjártó prevented by veto. The Hungarian minister went on the counter-attack and complained that Kiev had unilaterally stopped the transit of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline. Refineries in Hungary and Slovakia are supplied via this route; the countries had secured corresponding exemptions from EU sanctions. The fronts between Kiev and Budapest have now hardened further. The possibility of Hungary lifting its veto on other issues, such as the reimbursement of arms deliveries, also seemed out of the question to Borrell.”