Macropolis

the domestic audience, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is hoping to enhance his standing outside Greece by strengthening ties with the Southern European leaders that are due in Athens on Friday for a summit called by the Greek premier.

The meeting will involve the leaders of France, Italy, Malta, Cyprus and Portugal. Spain’s Mariano Rajoy will not take part in the so-called EU-Med summit. The gathering is seen as an effort by Tsipras to build alliances ahead of a new round of European Council and Eurogroup meetings.

Although debt relief and a response to austerity policies were probably at the top of the agenda when Athens began making plans for the mini-summit a few weeks ago, the refugee crisis may end up being a dominant theme in the wake of suggestions that EU members may send migrants back to Greece under the Dublin regulations and fears that arrivals may rise even more than they have since July.

Tsipras’s mood ahead of the Athens meeting was evident in an interview published in France’s Le Monde newspaper on Thursday. When questioned about the issue of debt relief and how the subject may be put off until after the German elections in 2017, the Greek prime minister said “we have to decide if we are a European Union or a German Europe,” adding that “it is preferable to have a European Germany… than a German Europe.”

His comments came as it emerged that Tsipras had turned down an opportunity to attend another mini-summit being organised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Sunday, ahead of an informal meeting of EU leaders in Bratislava next Friday. According to reports, Athens turned down the invitation citing Tsipras’s commitments at the Thessaloniki International Fair over the weekend. He is due to deliver the keynote speech there on Saturday and hold a wide-ranging news conference on Sunday, as is traditionally done by Greek prime ministers at this event.

In his interview with Le Monde, Tsipras was also questioned about his relationship with Europe’s social democratic leaders, with the interviewer suggesting that the Greek leader was now closer to them ideologically than to the radical left.

As we have written before, there has been an ever-closer understanding between Tsipras and centre-right EU leaders like Francois Hollande and Matteo Renzi, with the Greek leader being invited to recent gatherings of social democratic leaders as an observer.

“In the European Council, I find myself closer to the social democratic leaders than the right-wing ones,” said Tsipras in response, while trying to deflect the accusation that he has abandoned his ideological roots.

However, there seems to be gathering momentum behind the idea of closer cooperation between Europe’s social democrats and the radical left.

A so-called “progressive caucus” formed by MEPs from leftist GUE-NGL, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA) held its first public event in Brussels on Tuesday against a backdrop of discussions regarding a possible grand alliance between the three groups.

Tsipras will have been cheered by the atmosphere within this group of MEPs regarding how the Greek leader is seen and the prospects for cooperation. “For me, he represents the hope of tomorrow’s left,” said French social democrat Emmanuel Maurel “I don’t want to interfere in Greek politics, but as a European socialist I want to discuss with SYRIZA, I want to work with them and I think there is space for SYRIZA in our group.”