The coalition Greek government survived a ‘no confidence’ motion tabled by the main opposition New Democracy (ND) party in Parliament on Friday and voted on a day later, with a recently concluded agreement between Athens and Skopje to resolve the contentious fYRoM “name issue” triggering the initial censure action.
Out of 300 MPs in Greece’s legislature, 280 were in attendance.
One-hundred-and-fifty-three deputies hailing from the dominant coalition party, hard left SYRIZA, as well as the rightwing Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) party voted down the no confidence measure, with one “casualty” in the process, as AN.EL deputy Dimitris Kammenos voting in favor of the “no confidence” motion.
Immediately after the vote, AN.EL’s founder and president, Panos Kammenos (same name), announced that Dimitris Kammenos had been expelled from the small rightist-populist party’s Parliamentary group – meaning that the majority propping up the poll-trailing Tsipras government is down to three MPs.
One-hundred-and-twenty-seven MPs in the opposition, from center-right ND, the social PASOK party and other voted in favor of the no confidence measure, while the deputies of the Communist Party (KKE) abstained.
In an earlier debate, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras referred to an agreement that every “Greek prime minister after 1995, and the interim agreement, would like to have had on the table.” At the same time, he said the bilateral agreement – which must be ratified first in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) – does not refer to a “Macedonian” nationality or ethnos. He also criticized his rival, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and former ND premier Antonis Samaras.
The highlight of the agreement include a “North” in a new composite name with a geographic qualifier for the one-time Yugoslav constituent, i.e. “Republic of North Macedonia”, yet the language in the neighboring country remains “Macedonia”, but with an explanation that it is “within the group of South Slavic Languages. ” The citizenship/nationality also remains “Macedonian” but with a clarification – as stated in the text of the agreement – that it relates to the citizens of the would-be “North Macedonia”.
On his part, ND president Kyriakos Mitsotakis said from Parliament’s podium that “now is the time for all to assume their responsibilities … A vote against the no confidence motion is a vote in favor of the Tsipras-Zaev agreement … By voting no, each one of you separately, acquires a ticket for Prespes. You all will leave power, the agreement you brought is without a return,” he said, referring to the prime minister of the neighboring country, Zoran Zaev, as well as a border lake region where the pact will be signed on Sunday.
Meanwhile, in a high-profile intervention, the office of former prime minister Costas Karamanlis on Saturday issued a statement saying that the address by former foreign minister Dora Bakoyannis, who held the portfolio in the Karamanlis government up to October 2009, “precisely details the framework of policy by the then government regarding the Skopje issue, with culminated in Bucharest, as well as the subtantive differences in policy and tactics (of the Karamanlis government) compared to the current government.”
The Greek government in 2008 essentially blocked fYRoM accession to NATO over the “name issue”.
