Greek PM to seek new confidence vote to avoid snap elections

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Sunday that he will seek a new confidence vote to his government in the coming days in a bid to avoid snap general elections, after the withdrawal of the junior partner in the ruling two-partite coalition.

"We will proceed immediately to the process foreseen by the Greek Constitution and the rules of the parliament regarding the renewal of confidence of the assembly to my government," Tsipras told Xinhua and other media outside his office.

"In this way we will make with absolute majority all crucial choices for the country and the Greek society. This way my government will complete its term, as foreseen by the Constitution, in October 2019," the Prime Minister stressed.

He made the remarks after a meeting with Panos Kammenos who shortly earlier had announced that he steps down from the post of the Defense Minister and the Independent Greeks (ANEL) party he leads is departing the coalition over the Macedonia name deal.

"We managed to pull our country out of the memoranda... This cooperation cannot go on. ANEL will leave the government," Kammenos told media exiting the PM's office.

ANEL will not cast a vote of confidence to Tsipras' new government, because it has been linked to a vote in favor of the agreement clinched in June last year with the Former Yuogoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to end a long-standing dispute over the use of the Macedonia name, he added during a press conference.

"If there will be some people who will trade their votes for their cabinet posts, they will be expelled from ANEL," Kammenos stressed amid media reports that some of the ministers which belong to ANEL may decide to stay in the new government.

In an e-mailed press statement on Sunday Marina Chryssoveloni, Deputy Minister of Interior, said that the government should stay in office until the end of its term which expires in the autumn, implying that she may not follow Kammenos' stance.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Terence Quick also openly said that he will support Tsipras' government to the end.

ANEL MP Thanassis Papachristopoulos who has also publicly expressed diverging views from Kammenos, told a local radio on Sunday afternoon that he knows that at least 4 of ANEL's 7 deputies will give a confidence vote to the new cabinet.

The outgoing Defense Minister who will be replaced by Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, Chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, as the PM announced, also urged for a referendum on the name agreement.

"It should be put to the judgment of Greek people in a referendum. Next to the ballots for the European parliament elections, there should be another ballot and let Greeks decide and we will accept their decision," he told the press conference.

He insisted that the name deal was unconstitutional and his party will go to the Council of State, the country's top administrative court, to declare it as such.

The withdrawal of the Right-wing ANEL party from the government coalition puts an end to an alliance with Tsipras' Left SYRIZA party after almost four years.

It did not came as a surprise because Kammenos and ANEL MPs had repeatedly expressed their view that the name agreement is against Greece's national interests, leaving space for future territorial claims by Skopje despite the final constitutional amendments which were ratified last Friday at FYROM.

Despite ideological differences ANEL and SYRIZA were joined in their anti-bailout stance initially and gradually (after the signing of the third and final bailout program in the summer of 2015) their resolve to implement all the necessary policies to lead Greece out of the debt crisis.

Both leaders on Sunday underlined that they had an honest partnership so far.

SYRIZA currently controls 145 seats in the 300-member strong assembly. Under the Greek Constitution Tsipras could continue by seeking ad hoc majorities in Parliament.

In the motion of confidence which according to government sources will be submitted Tuesday with the roll call vote taking place on Thursday, he needs either the votes of opposition MPs to win in the plenary or just 120 votes in case many deputies will abstain.

Macedonia is formally called the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) by the United Nations. Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece. Athens is worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.

On June 17 last year, Macedonia and Greece signed the Prespa (or Prespes) Agreement to resolve a decades-old name dispute. Under the deal, the official name of the country will become the Republic of North Macedonia.

The Macedonian parliament, in an initial vote, on Friday passed an amendment to the constitution, paving the way to changing the country's name to the Republic of North Macedonia.