By G. Kampourakis
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras referred to the building of a “national position” regarding the resurrected fYRoM “name issue” negotiations, speaking before his briefing of Greece’s non-executive president of the republic on Friday afternoon.
Tsipras was received by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos at the presidential mansion, a 50-meter walk from prime ministerial office, and a day before he’s scheduled to separately brief opposition political leaders over the same issue. The opposition has sharply criticized the Tsipras government for not having briefed political leaders so far, as Tsipras first met with Greece’s most influential ecclesiastical leader over the matter.
“There was an effort at rapprochement and certain steps were made. Efforts will intensify over the coming period. I want to brief you … that we will deal with these issues within a climate of substantive dialogue and cool-headedness, just as we do with all foreign policy issues. Foreign policy has continuity, and we adhere to this (concept),” Tsipras said before television cameras, in addressing Pavlopoulos.
The first part of the statement referred to his meeting in Davos, Switzerland with his counterpart from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), Zoran Zaev.
His last part of his statement, however, was interpreted as indirectly pointing to a Greek political leaders’ decision on the fYRoM “name issue” dating to 2008, namely, that a solution must entail a composite name with a geographic qualifier before the name “Macedonia” for use in all instances.
