Greek FM resigns in internal dispute over Macedonia deal

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has resigned in an internal dispute over a deal with neighboring Macedonia, which he helped negotiate but which has faced opposition from a section of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s coalition government.

The 67-year-old career diplomat and university professor abruptly offered his resignation to Tsipras on Wednesday, a day after he clashed in a cabinet meeting with Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who heads the small, right-wing party of the Independent Greeks.

On Monday, the defense minister had threatened to pull his party from the coalition if the deal with Macedonia came to parliament for ratification.

It was not yet clear why exactly Kotzias — one of Tsipras’s most experienced ministers — decided to step down, but he may have resigned to prevent the Independent Greeks from withdrawing from the coalition government.

The fragile coalition is composed of Tsipras’s left-wing Syriza Party and the Independent Greeks.

At the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Kotzias ardently defended the agreement, but Kammenos lambasted it as what he described as a national sellout.

On Wednesday, the Greek prime minister was quick in accepting Kotzias’s resignation, potentially signaling he was willing to sacrifice one of his closest political allies in favor of preserving his coalition government.

Shortly afterwards, Tsipras stressed that he would do whatever was required to ensure that the hard-fought deal — signed on June 17 to rename Macedonia as the “Republic of North Macedonia” — gets implemented.

“I am determined to do whatever I can (to) safeguard the successful conclusion of the historic... agreement,” said the 44-year-old leftist Tsipras, adding that he had decided to take over the duties of foreign minister portfolio himself.

The deal is awaiting approval from the parliament in Greece. The Macedonian legislature has already ratified it.

SS