New diplomatic challenge comes from Germany
With the relaxing in Greek-Turkish tensions made official by the recent meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece must now deal with German activism on the expansion of the European Union.
Germany has taken as its main lesson from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that trying too hard to accommodate Russia and others within the European Union (Hungary, for example), a hallmark of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s years, was a mistake. To rectify it, Berlin now appears ready to ditch unanimity, at least on foreign and security policy.
And if bypassing Hungarian obstructionism, or opening a path to EU accession of Ukraine are welcome, Germany’s push for Albanian accession, despite the latter’s continued jailing of the elected mayor of Himare, Fredi Beleri, has led to Mitsotakis’ clashing with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
