A government spokesman on Wednesday used a “train metaphor” to reply to persistent press questions over cracks in the leftist-rightist coalition government’s cohesion, and following a tumultuous Cabinet meeting a day earlier.
“The government train is moving ahead, with a clear direction; whoever doesn’t want to reach its destination, or whoever is distressed over the route, can come down from the train,” spokesman and minister of state Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said.
He also dismissed, as “fantasy leaks”, same-day press reports claiming that Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias threatened to resign.
A day earlier, reports had Kotzias sharply criticizing his fellow Cabinet member, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, over the latter’s high-profile statements in Washington D.C. last week. Kammenos cited the prospect of an out-of-NATO “Balkan Alliance” and more US bases in Greece, while again reiterating his opposition for the Prespa Agreement, comments made during an official visit to the US Pentagon and with US Secretary of Defense James Mattis by his side.
The controversial defense minister heads up a small right-wing party that props up the “strange bedfellows” Tsipras coalition government. Alexis Tsipras and his radical leftist SYRIZA party were the “first-past-the-poll” party in both snap elections in 2015, but failed to win an outright majority (150+1) of deputies in Greece’s 300-MP Parliament. As such, Kammenos and his rightist-populist Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) deputies agreed to join a coalition.
“I do not know if he (Kotzias) is upset, and I do not believe this, because he has no reason to be upset; the government’s position is his… if this was the case, however, he (Kotzias) wouldn’t have reasons to leak it (displeasure), he’s in contact with the prime minister, with which he speaks on a regular basis,” Tzanakopoulos added, in a television appearance.
