Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
Greece’s defence minister, who is head of the main coalition partner of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, announced his resignation on Sunday ahead of an upcoming parliamentary vote to end a 27-year name dispute with Macedonia.
“The Macedonia issue does not allow me not to sacrifice my post,” Panos Kammenos said after a meeting with Tsipras.
“I thanked the prime minister for the cooperation and I explained to him that for this national issue we cannot continue,” he said, adding that his Independent Greeks party (ANEL) “is pulling out of the government”.
The nationalist ANEL supports the Tsipras administration with its seven lawmakers and has six ministers and junior ministers in the government.
Kammenos had threatened to pull out of the government when the name deal comes to a vote in Athens from the moment Tsipras signed the agreement with Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in June. However some of his ANEL party’s MPs remain…
