Tsipras Calls for Vote of Confidence After Kammenos Quits Over Macedonia Deal

By New York Times

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on Sunday for a vote of confidence in the Greek government, hours after a junior coalition partner announced that he would quit in protest of a deal to end a dispute with Macedonia over its name.

The move threw the country into new political turmoil, fueling speculation about possible snap elections, although Mr. Tsipras said his government aimed to complete its term into October.

The coalition partner, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who is also the leader of the right-wing Independent Greeks party, announced his resignation following talks at the prime minister’s residence.

“The Macedonia name issue does not allow me not to sacrifice my post,” the minister told reporters afterward. “ANEL is leaving the government,” he said, using the Greek acronym for his party.

His decision came days after Macedonian lawmakers agreed to officially change the country’s name to the Republic of North Macedonia, ending a long dispute with Greece and opening the door for the small Balkan nation’s membership in NATO and the European Union.

Greece has long argued that Macedonians were a Hellenistic people and therefore the name could not be claimed by the Slavic people living in the country today. Since NATO requires unanimity to accept a new member, Greece has effectively kept Macedonia out of the security alliance.

Shortly after Mr. Kammenos’s decision, the leftist prime minister thanked the defense minister for his “irreplaceable, important contribution” to the government.

“Our ideological differences with Kammenos were well known,” he added. “Despite this we cooperated honestly and we achieved a lot of significant things, most importantly extracting the country from the upheaval of the memorandums,” he said, referring to Greece’s emergence from its third international bailout last summer.

Declaring that his goals now were to continue a range of reforms and “upgrade the country’s role on the international stage,” Mr. Tsipras said he would seek a confidence vote “directly” so that his government could complete its term.

“Each must now face their historic responsibilities,” he said.

The vote was expected to be held this week, after two days of debate from Tuesday morning, according to a recommendation by the Parliament speaker, Nikos Voutsis.

Mr. Tsipras appointed Adm. Evaggelos Apostolakis, the director of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, as defense minister.

After months of friction over the Macedonia name change, Mr. Tsipras suggested in a television interview last week that he would seek a vote of confidence rather than snap elections if Mr. Kammenos withdrew his support. He conceded, however, that although the Greek Constitution would allow him to continue to govern with a minority government, “politically” there would be a problem.

The governing coalition has 153 seats in the 300-seat Parliament — 145 held by the leftist Syriza and the other seven by ANEL. Growing upheaval within the fragile coalition in recent months has fanned speculation that elections will be brought forward, most likely to May, when the European Parliament and local authority elections are scheduled.

After Mr. Tsipras’s announcement, Mr. Kammenos said at a news conference on Sunday that he would not support a confidence vote in Parliament, and that any party members who insisted on maintaining their cabinet position would be expelled from ANEL.

He also called for a referendum in May on the Macedonia name deal, which was signed by Athens and Skopje last June and ratified on Friday by Macedonia’s Parliament. The vote by Macedonian lawmakers was one step toward ending a long-running dispute with Greece, where a northern region also bears the Macedonia name.

“It is not a deal; it is a capitulation,” Mr. Kammenos said of the agreement, echoing a sentiment echoed by many Greeks who believe that the pact implies claims to Greek territory, since Greece has a northern region named Macedonia.