Greek FM Nikis Kotzias tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras early Wednesday afternoon, with the leftist prime minister to assume the sensitive portfolio.
The sudden development comes after a tumultuous Cabinet meeting a day earlier, where Kotzias lashed out at the right-wing defense minister, Panos Kammenos, who essentially keeps the current government in power as the head of the small junior coalition partner. General elections are set for next year.
The outspoken Kammenos, according to other sources, questioned Kotzias’ alleged ties to international NGOs – allegedly pulling out a populist-favored “Soros card” to electrify his critique – during the Tuesday Cabinet meeting. On his part, Kotzias demanded a law making the management of the defense ministry’s “discretionary funds” transparent.
The news comes as the Zaev government in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) appears as unlikely to muster enough deputies in the country’s Parliament to ratify the provisional Prespa Agreement, whose “architect” on the Greek side is none other than Kotzias.
In a brief statement released to the press, Tsipras is quoted as saying that he’ll “contribute, with all his efforts, to the successful completition of the Prespa Agreement”, before the ubiquitous gratitude towards the resigned minister for his contribution to the leftist-rightist government over the past three and a half years.
Government sources, meanwhile, said Tsipras may also make a televised statement outside his office, before boarding a state executive jet to head off for another EU summit in Brussels.
A subsequent Tweet (in Greek) on a Twitter account long-cited as Kotzias’, noted:
“There comes a time, the poet says, to decide with whom you’ll go and who you’ll leave behind. The PM and several ministers at yesterday’s (Tuesday) Cabinet meeting made their choices, and I did the same afterwards. It is wise for them, however, to remember the verse: they buried me deep, they forgot that I am a seed”.
Kotzias, along with former public order alternate minister Nikos Toskas and a MP elected from Piraeus first election district, Georgia Yennia, were formerly cadres with once dominant PASOK party before gravitating to the more left-leaning SYRIZA party in the period prior to the 2015 snap election. All three are also affiliated with the leftist-socialist “Pratto” think tank, founded by Kotzias, and the trio serve in Parliament.
Kotzias was elected to Parliament on SYRIZA’s state deputies’ list, meaning he won his seat without having to run in an electrion district against other SYRIZA party candidates.
