On the geopolitical front, the Great Sea Interconnector edged toward its decisive moment. The research vessel Abeille Marengo, contracted by Nexans through the Italian firm Next Geosolutions, sailed off Heraklion after receiving Greek authorisation and is awaiting a Navtex defining the survey area. It must notify the Hellenic Navy 72 hours before starting work and report daily, while other vessels must keep a nautical mile clear. Nexans’ chief executive said political-level discussions are under way and that surveys would take months. In parallel, the Kobi Ruegg departed for waters off Paphos to begin delayed surveys for the EMC fibre-optic cable, which has been the subject of competing Navtex notices among Greece, Turkey and Cyprus. Vessel movements in the coming days will show whether Paris and Ankara have found a formula or reached an impasse.
The Turkey-Libya memorandum remains the broader backdrop. Athens is concerned that Ankara has renewed an offer of 15,000 square kilometres of EEZ to Egypt should Cairo shift its position, though that looks difficult for now. UN Secretary-General Guterres, in Cairo, backed UNCLOS and the Greek-Egyptian agreement, a statement welcomed in Athens. Mitsotakis, chairing the Greek-led Security Council debate on emerging technologies and maritime security, called the memorandum illegal, arbitrary and contrary to geography itself, stressing that Turkey and Libya have neither opposite nor adjacent coasts and that the Greek islands between them are inhabited communities, not rocks. Athens expects the Blue Homeland bill before year-end and further crises of varying intensity through the pre-election period.
Rule-of-law friction surfaced at EU level. Outgoing European Chief Prosecutor Kovesi called the dispute over renewing EPPO delegated prosecutors’ mandates in Greece the most blatant attempt to intimidate the office during her tenure, and defended the request to lift the immunity of 11 MPs, noting that it is not a finding of guilt. Her successor, Andres Ritter, takes office on 1 November.
Separately, the under-15 social media ban was published as Law 5350/2026 for entry into force on 1 January 2027. The Commission clarified that Greece, like France, is exempt from the 12-month suspension of overlapping national initiatives because its notification standstill had already ended, but stressed that this is not an endorsement of the law’s compatibility with EU rules. Enforceability against platforms established elsewhere in the EU remains the central open question.
In education, a ministry amendment sets new evaluation and certification terms for private university programmes after a Council of State ruling invalidated earlier certification, with a register of external evaluators and conflict-of-interest limits. Greece is also clawing back over €323 million in approved subsidies after cancelling 141 never-built investment projects under the 2016 investment law, 84% of them hotels.
Domestically, Mitsotakis raised his electoral target to the “40s” for New Democracy, replacing the 25% floor he had cited earlier, and ruled out cooperation with PASOK, citing its abstention on the social media bill. The shift is read as an effort to counter defeatism and consolidate support through polarisation, though polls sit around 30%. Pressures within his own camp are growing: MPs who doubt they will be re-elected may feel freer to dissent, and the leadership is wary of expulsions that would hand them to a prospective Samaras party. A further embarrassment came when Michalis Bekiris, head of the prime minister’s parliamentary office, temporarily resigned after a newspaper questioned his formal appointment and degree. He denies wrongdoing and says he worked unpaid.
The opposition is under strain too. ELAS faces mounting questions over messaging after a rushed economic programme presentation, difficulty explaining its wealth levy, and its revival of a 13th pension conditional on €2 billion in wealth taxation, a theme PASOK had made its own. It will approve its candidate slate on 21 November. The week’s poll has ND at 30.1%, ELAS at 15.4%, PASOK at 14.3%, Greek Solution at 7.4%, KKE at 5.9% and Hope for Democracy at 4.2%. Respondents split 46% to 44% between single-party and coalition government, and 63% blame the government primarily for rising prices, against 34% who cite international conflicts. PASOK is seen as the more credible opposition by 24%, against 16% for ELAS.
Economically, the signal is household strain. ELSTAT shows disposable income up 3.7% to €165.4 billion in 2025 against consumption up 5.2% to €171.8 billion, pushing the savings rate to minus 3.9% from minus 2.4%. Eurostat data showing gross disposable household income falling 2.5% in the first quarter of 2026, the second-largest drop in the EU, add to the concern. Energy is the immediate risk: wholesale electricity touched almost €259 per MWh on Monday, with renewables below 35% of output and TTF gas above €97 per MWh for the first time since 2022. Variable green tariffs face a bleak November, PPC’s fixed tariff window closes on 31 October, and fuel subsidies are certain to be extended for the first two weeks of November, with unleaded at €2.15, diesel at €2.12 and heating oil at €1.56 per litre.
Taken together, this week shows a Greece whose external position is being tested simultaneously at sea, in Brussels and in the Security Council it currently chairs, while at home a government raising its ambitions confronts households that are drawing down savings and an energy winter that may force a return to broad subsidies.