Main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday evening reiterated his opposition to the recently signed “Prespes Agreement” between Athens and Skopje, which aims to finally resolve the fYRoM “name issue”, saying his party will vote down the deal when it comes before Parliament for ratification.
Speaking during a televised interview with Athens’ Skai broadcaster, he nevertheless conceded that the agreement “generated results” from the moment it was signed, and also admitted that if ratified there would be hardly any margins for the next government to maneuver.
Mitsotakis, whose center-right party continues to lead ruling SYRIZA by double-digit percentage points for months now, also said the European People’s Party (EPP), the European grouping that ND belongs to, has exercised no pressure on him whatsoever over the “name issue”. He also said he’s made his party’s positions known to Berlin.
Referring to the recovering Greek economy and last Friday’s Eurogroup meeting, Mitsotakis merely repeated that the third bailout may end in August 2018, but that creditors’ continued supervision and coming austerity measures remain. In fact, he charged that the Tsipras government was promoting a “fourth memorandum”.
As such, he pointed to scheduled cuts in social security, welfare benefits and a lowering of the tax-free annual income threshold, all to come in 2019.
In terms of debt relief measures extended to Greece by European creditors – finalized with the Eurogroup agreement last Friday – Mitsotakis referred to a “meager” adjustment, one that “is far removed from the expectations that it (government) had cultivated, and from the commitments that Greece had received from its partners in 2012.”
