Kotzias threatens resignation after rift in relations with Tsipras
“The Prime minister cannot hang out to dry the foreign minister, who negotiated the Prespa Agreement, which is national policy,” sources close to Kotzias said.
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The klieg lights of publicity may have focused on the clash between Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Defence Minister Panos Kammenos at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, but the handling of the Prespa Agreement has also created a deep rift in the relations between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his foreign minister. Indeed, those in the know say that the worst is yet to come.
For some time, Kotzias has been livid with PM’s office, due to the Prespa Agreement. The reason is the prime minister’s decision to keep equal distances in his relations with the two ministers. Kotzias considers it inconceivable that the PM cannot call his coalition partner to order or break with him on an issue as important as the Prespa Agreement.
Critics believe that Tsipras and his inner circle should have taken a clear stand in favour of the foreign minister, who handled an issue as important as the FYROM naming affair, instead of adopting a stance of a UN Blue Helmet and walking on a tightrope.
“The Prime minister cannot hang out to dry the foreign minister, who negotiated the Prespa Agreement, which is national policy,” sources close to Kotzias said. They believe that Tsipras’ advisors who are attempting to keep an equal distance are creating a major problem and have harmed the government’s line on the issue.
After yesterday’s incident, and Kotzias’ informal meeting with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, sources close to the foreign minister said that Kotzias is even mulling the possibility of resigning.
Either he means it, which would be a bombshell for the government, or he is sending a warning to the PM’s office to take a clear stand.
After yesterday’s clash between the two ministers, Kotzias feels that Tsipras is hanging him out to dry because he fears the reaction of Panos Kammenos, who constantly declares his opposition to the Prespa Agreement.
“I have been harshly criticised over the FYROM naming issue. I have been subjected to suffocating pressures, the affair is on a razor’s edge, and the prime minister is not supporting the governmental-national line that he himself has declared,” Kotzias is quoted as saying.
After yesterday’ skirmish, Kotzias believes that the issue cannot be dragged out any longer. His clash with Kammenos has festered for months, and the time when Kammenos used to say he trusts Kotzias is long gone. As the Athens-Skopje negotiations proceeded, their relations worsened, and now they are like two strangers in the same government.
Kotzias had expected the prime minister to differentiate his stance from Kammenos’ extreme positions, and unreservedly defend all the efforts that led to the Prespa Agreement.
Yesterday, Tsipras decided not to clash with his coalition partner, thus allowing the ministers to defuse their rage, a move that outraged the testy foreign minister even more.
Hence, Kotzias’ sudden, nighttime visit with the President of the Republic, where they discussed recent developments for an hour-and-a-half, was anything but coincidental.
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