Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras again dismissed any possibility of declaring snap elections, speaking in Brussels on Friday, as his leftist-rightist government struggles this week to deal with the abrupt resignation of foreign minister Nikos Kotzias.
With a general election roughly a year away and with his ruling party badly trailing main opposition New Democracy (ND) in practically all mainstream opinion polls, Tsipras this week reportedly declined to offer political cover to Kotzias, who came under scathing criticism by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.
Kammenos is the head of a small right-wing party that props up the current government as the junior coalition partner. Without his and his remaining MPs’ support in Parliament the Tsipras government would face losing its mandate to rule.
In reply to a press question on the sidelines of an EU summit in the Belgian capital, Tsipras also said he does not plan to request a vote of confidence in Greece’s 300-deputy Parliament.
Asked about another political “hot potato” he faces months before an election, he dismissed speculation that his government will propose to creditors that it partially implement an already legislated social security sector reduction – set for January 2019 – rather than the entire austerity measure.
He insisted that Athens is working to avoid the measure altogether and has budgeted “expansionary measures” in the draft 2019 budget.
Asked what he’ll do if Eurozone finance ministers (the Eurogroup venue) decide to reject his government’s request to suspend the pension cuts measure, he merely advised “patience”.
