MACRON

The two leaders presented the agreements as a substantial step toward the much touted EU defence autonomy and ended a joint press conference at Elysee Palace with beaming smiles and raised clasped hands.

Athens has been offered a great opportunity to exploit the European wave of dissatisfaction with Ankara by responding calmly to provocations, and persistently highlighting Ankara’s violations of Greece’s sovereignty in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.

The PM has decided not to raise his government’s top aim of lowering the primary surplus requirement and to postpone that until after the Greek economy is on a sustainable growth path.