By G. Kampourakis
[email protected]
Government sources at the beginning of the week dismissed media reports of a “fall-out” between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his junior partner, Defense Minister and Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) party leader Panos Kammenos, or even a looming “split” between the two parties in the current “strange bedfellows” coalition government.
Nevertheless, the same reports claim that the sources declined to comment over the possibility of AN.EL’s deputies in Parliament withdrawing from Cabinet positions and subsequently offering a vote of confidence for the remaining government – which would be considered as the start of an unofficial election season in the country.
General elections are scheduled for the second half of 2019 in Greece, assuming no snap poll is declared by the premier.
Conversely, top cadres from the leftist-rightist coalition government, which continues to trail center-right New Democracy (ND) party in all mainstream opinion polls by double-digit figures, blame the latest scenarios of a split with the small right-wing AN.EL party on the opposition and critical media.
For Tsipras, concluding an agreement with the coalition government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) over the still unresolved “name issue” appears as a much-needed fillip for his gasping government. A fYRoM “name issue” resolution would be counted as a genuine foreign policy success, with ramifications well beyond Greece’s borders.
However, Tsipras faces sharp opposition in northern Greece and by Kammenos, whose nationalist-tinged rhetoric precludes any solution for the neighboring country’s name that includes the term “Macedonia”.
According to press reports, mostly aired in the opposition press, Tsipras and Kammenos also disagree over the course of action for the return two Greek servicemen held by Turkey for allegedly entering Turkish territory earlier in the month, as well as how to handle the now explosive matter involving controversial Greek-Russian businessman and investor Ivan Savvidis.
