THE Greek foreign minister has resigned after a disagreement over the handling of a deal which would change Macedonia’s name and see Greece drop its objections to the country joining Nato.
Prime minister Alexis Tsipras announced he had accepted Nikos Kotzias’s resignation after his clash with the Greek defence minister.
Tsipras said he would take over the foreign ministry himself “to help with all his powers in the successful completion” of the name change deal, his office said.
Kotzias’s move came a day after a cabinet meeting during which he reportedly had a heated argument with Panos Kammenos over the name deal and felt he did not receive sufficient support from his colleagues and the prime minister.
“The PM and a series of ministers made their choices in yesterday’s meeting, and then I made mine,” he said in a tweet.
Kammenos, who heads the coalition’s junior party, has long objected to the deal and threatened to leave the coalition if the agreement comes to parliament.
Greece has long argued that use of the term Macedonia harboured territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name. Under the agreement, the country would change its name to North Macedonia in return for Nato membership.
But Kammenos’s small right-wing Independent Greeks had vowed to oppose the deal and vote against it, which would leave the government dependent on opposition support.
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