Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday, speaking from the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels, said he won’t publicize a lengthy resignation letter by his recently resigned foreign minister, Nikos Kotzias.
Tsipras assumed the foreign ministry portfolio after Kotzias gruffly resigned from the post this week, and a day after a furious row at a Cabinet meeting with Defense Minister Panos Kammenos.
He added that he considers the matter now over, and will be briefed by Kotzias on Saturday at the foreign ministry, where a handover ceremony is ostensibly planned. Nevertheless, Tsipras revealed that he has not read Kotzias’ resignation letter, saying merely it is lying atop his desk in Athens, marked “strictly confidential”.
Tsipras, whose ruling SYRIZA party is trailing the main opposition center-right by double-digit percentage points in practically all mainstream opinion polls and whose own personal voter approval ratings are sagging, sidestepped a press question on why he retains Kammenos in the Cabinet and accepted the resignation of Kotzias instead.
He merely answered that his leftist-rightist government has a clear direction: exit from the economic crisis and ratification of the Prespa accord.
“I am determined to protect these two achievements, and not sacrifice either one for the other,” was his Delphic response.
The combative Kammenos and his small right-wing party are sternly opposed to the provisional June 2018 Prespa accord to resolve the fYRoM “name issue”, whereas Kotzias is viewed as the architect of the landmark but politically sensitive agreement to finally resolve the long-standing difference between Athens and Skopje.
“From here on in, whoever represents the country abroad will wear the cap of national policy,” Tsipras said, using a Greek language metaphor.
