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ANEL MP postpones handing in parliamentary seat for a week

ANEL MP postpones handing in parliamentary seat for a week

Independent Greeks (ANEL) MP Thanasis Papachristopoulos did not give up his parliamentary seat on Friday, as he had announced a day earlier, after Parliament President Nikos Voutsis asked him to wait until lawmakers have voted on the NATO accession protocol for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) next week.

Coming out of a meeting with Voutsis in Parliament, the lawmaker said he will follow through with his pledge after next week.

If he were to give up his seat, the official procedure requires that it is handed to the next MP in terms of votes received in the last elections, which is Terens Quick, a deputy foreign minister elected with ANEL.

Papachristopoulos broke ranks with his party in January voting in favour of the Prespes deal in parliament, which will rename FYROM “North Macedonia,” ending a decades-long dispute between the two countries.

Speaking to private broadcaster ANT1 on Thursday, he said: "I owe this seat to ANEL and I will give it up tomorrow."

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