Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, the junior coalition partner in the current Greek government, on Wednesday said his party does not extend its confidence to embattled Migration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas.
The minister’s reference to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) during televised comments on Tuesday evening as only “Macedonia”, generated heated reactions and the demand by Kammenos’ right-of-center party for his resignation. Successive Greek governments have insisted since 1990 on differentiating the former Yugoslav republic and the large province of Macedonia in northern Greece.
Moments after meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Kammenos said his party still extends its confidence to the ruling SYRIZA party, which has less than 150 MPs in the 300-deputy Parliament, and thus requires a coalition partner.
The defence minister said he will wait for Mouzalas’ return from a ministers’ meeting in Brussels and for his resignation.
“Mouzalas doesn’t have the Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) confidence, as opposed to the government. Relations with Tsipras are very clear, there is no confidence for Mouzalas,” the outspoken political leader said in referring to his party.
The migration minister, an obstetrician by training, quickly issued an apology and referred to a “slip of the tongue”.
