Prespa Agreement

“As President of Bulgaria, I do not agree with the name ‘Northern Macedonia’. There is no such country. That name cannot be adopted." said Rumen Radev.

With its customary opportunism, the government has managed to transform the Greece-FYROM Prespa Agreement into a domestic problem that has divided society and the government itself.

When Mr. Tsipras cannot persuade his coalition partner to stop shrieking and making nationalist pronouncements, he cannot demand unconditional opposition support.

Neither Athens nor Skopje confirmed reports that Greece wants to add under UN auspices a protocol clarifying the correct interpretation of the accord’s provisions on language.

Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov has demanded that Skopje make clear that it has no claims as regards a “Macedonian language” in Bulgaria (Sofia says it is a Bulgarian dialect).

'The government and the prime minister can no longer stand on sidelines as passive observers. They have a duty, even now, to assume their responsibilities,' said ND's shadow foreign minister.

Zaev himself essentially put on the table an issue of a “Macedonian minority” in Greece.

When FYROM citizens refer to 'Macedonians of the Aegean', they refer directly to an irredentist tradition that views the geographically largest part of Macedonia, which is the northern province of Greece, as an unliberated territory, essentially as a Greek-occupied part of their country.

Alternate Foreign Minister Yorgos Katrougalos responds to FYROM PM Zoran Zaev’s remark that in the future the 'Macedonian language' may be taught in Greek schools.

Although George Soros gained a reputation as a ruthless speculator, he has placed his riskiest bets in politics and not the markets.

'He [Kammenos] spoke of secret funds. He also said that Soros is funding the government to buy off foreigners [to pass the Greece-FYROM Prespa Agreement],' former foreign minister Kotzias said in a bombshell interview.

The ethnic Albanian Besa Movement and the Alliance for Albanians have said that their support for the Prespa Agreement will be contingent upon whether the revised constitution will include a provision that Albanian will be the country’s second official language,

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who immediately accepted it and announced that he will assume the portfolio. The resignation comes straight on the heels of yesterday’s stormy cabinet meeting, during which Kotzias lambasted Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, Tsipras’ junior coalition partner, after Kammenos on an official visit to Washington trashed the government’s Greece-FYROM Prespa Agreement and presented his own “Plan B”. Following a vitriolic exchange, Kotzias stormed out of the cabinet meeting and two hours later, at his request, was received by President Prokopis Pavlopooulos, with whom he had an hour-and-a-half discussion. It is believed that he signaled his intentions to Pavlopoulos. In announcing today that he will assume the foreign affairs portfolio, a clearly unsettled Tsipras declared – in a clear message to Kammenos - that he will tolerate no double-talk or personal agendas on the part of ministers, and in a clear message to Greece’s allies, he strongly stressed his unswerving support for the “historic” Prespa Agreement and FYROM PM Zoran Zaev’s feverish efforts this week to pass in parliament the constitutional amendments required by the accord. Kotzias was reportedly enraged by Tsipras’ decision to keep an equal distance from his two ministers, even though Kotzias for months had conducted the arduous negotiation that led to an agreement that Tsipras fiercely defends and touts as an historic achievement. At the cabinet meeting, Kotzias ripped into Kammenos, charging that the defence minister is actively undermining the interests of Greece and the government. Late last night and this morning Kotzias’ associates signaled his intense annoyance and indicated that he was considering resigning. Those leaks triggered a decisive public reaction by government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, who repeated the late prime minister Andreas Papandreou’s famed quote that “whoever cannot endure should get off the train”, a thinly veiled allusion to Kotzias. That statement strongly suggests that Tsipras had already had taken his decision to sacrifice Kotzias in order to save his coalition with Kammenos. That appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Some said that Kotzias was a step closer to resigning and others that Kotzias was already gathering his personal effects in the ministry. Government cadres are said to have aligned themselves with the substance of Tzanakopoulos’s message. Kotzias was reportedly enraged by Tsipras’ decision to keep an equal distance from himself and Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, even though Kotzias for months had conducted the arduous negotiations that led to the Prespa Accord, which Tsipras fiercely defends and touts as an historic achievement.

“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.

Mr. Tsipras, with his secret meetings and subterranean arrangements with his coalition partner, is trying to extend his stay in office as much as possible, but it is by now clear to everyone, even to his ministers, that he can persuade no one.

Kammenos yesterday that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was aware of his views on a Plan B for FYROM and US bases, but disagreed. Still, he expressed them in a formal meeting with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, leaving the impression that he is carving out his own foreign policy,

The ideological and political differences between SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks were highlighted in their conflicting views on church-state relations, the law on same-sex partnerships, and a host of other social issues.

'Since the referendum was consultative, and not mandatory, it is now up to the Members of Parliament, chosen by the people, to make a decision respecting and following the interests of the citizens, the country and their personal duty,' Zaev told Ta Nea in an exclusive interview.

Yesterday, we learned that a minister can, unhindered, create a new defence dogma, decide alliances and plot out military bases in other countries, and be called to order politely by the prime minister, and no one reacts.

In a referendum, voters often respond to the person asking the question, rather than the question itself

Moscow’s announcement yesterday that it views the referendum as invalid and that it is reserving the right to veto the agreement in the UN Security Council, is indicative of the evolving pressures and competition.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras outlined his arguments about the regional benefits of the FYROM naming accord (Prespa Agreement), discussed Greece’s relations with the US and Russia, and ruled out early elections, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal “I will not play games. The agreement will be ratified in the Greek parliament just after […]