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Kotzias: ‘Tsipras behaved like Pontius Pilate’

Kotzias: ‘Tsipras behaved like Pontius Pilate’

Nikos Kotzias, who resigned as Greece's foreign minister last month, has criticized Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for failing to support him in his dispute with junior coalition partner Panos Kammenos over the Prespes accord.

“Tsipras behaved like Pontius Pilate,” Kotzias told News 24/7 Wednesday, a reference to the Roman governor who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Kotzias resigned last month following a heated cabinet session during which he clashed with the country’s defense minister over the name deal signed in June with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

“When a person is undermining government policy, [the policy] must be defended in public. This did not happen during the cabinet meeting after which I resigned,” Kotzias said.

Kotzias, widely seen as the architect of the name deal, said that a number of campaigns to promote the agreement in northern Greece were ditched “so as not to upset the coalition partner.”

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