Kammenos: President, party leaders could block FYROM name deal
Defense Minister Panos Kammenos has reiterated his opposition to the name deal with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), calling on President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to summon the Political Leaders' Council and scrap it if the deal does not safeguard Greece from its northern neighbor's irredentism.
Kammenos, speaking at the Congress of his party's youth Friday, said that his party, the right-populist Independent Greeks (ANEL), will quit the alliance with SYRIZA and that ANEL ministers would resign, but added that, if opposition New Democracy tabled a no-confidence motion, he would not vote for it.
The name deal has divided the country and has had a negative impact, Kammenos insisted.
Kammenos also attacked former Foreign Minister and New Democracy MP Dora Bakoyiannis, the sister of opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, saying that the name “North Macedonia” agreed between Greece and FYROM last July, was “her property.” He also unleashed a broadside against his former colleague, ex-Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, who negociated the name deal.
“This guy, who leads a VIP party, a shell of a party, I don't know where he gets his money from, criticizes ANEL. I say to him, directly and clearly: we are in politics to chase away types like Kotzias, unelected by the Greek people.”
