Just hours after the signing of the agreement at Prespes on 16 June, ND sources were warning that, “Just as ND called the government to account with its no confidence motion, it will do the same by voting down the agreement, when Messrs Tsipras and Kammenos table it in parliament for ratification.
The battle royal between the government and the main opposition party flared up after a report in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which said that ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis committed himself, in speaking to foreign interlocutors, that as prime minister he will vote for the agreement with Skopje.
“It is extremely interesting, and indicative of the panic in the PM’s office, that it completely adopts the assessment of the German newspaper that Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be the country’s next prime minister,” an ND source said, denying the article as “alleged reporting” and as “absolutely false from the first to the last word”.
“In contradistinction to Alexis Tsipras, who says one thing domestically and another thing abroad, Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks with the same language in Greece and abroad.”
“Instead of the government being gratified by certain press reports abroad, it would best remain silent in order to realise exactly what it signed. This is all the more true when these reports depict certain foreigners as being enthused by an agreement which enrages Greeks. It is not surprising that Mr. Tsipras has the audacity to try to call New Democracy to account over the nationally harmful agreement at Prespes. Nor is it surprising that [the PM] was smiling when he heard [FYROM PM Zoran] Zaev speaking of “Macedonians”, in referring to his compatriots. The 153 MPs of SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks bear entirely the responsibility for the agreement, which is already producing fait accomplis,” the source concluded.
Dimitra Kroustalli
