Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke about the prospect of calling snap elections for the first time during a television interview on Open TV on Thursday.
Mr Tsipras responded to a question pointing out he would choose that path “in due course and in a timely manner” as long as his government failed to secure a vote of confidence in parliament, which he would call if Defence Minister and coalition partner Panos Kammenos withdrew his support to the Government.
Mr Tsipras said in the interview that supporting the Prespes Agreement between Greece and FYROM was a “patriotic duty”, dubbing it as the second most significant achievement of his administration after the exit from the memorandums.
The Prespes Agreement will come to the Greek parliament for debate in January, with the PM warning Greece would be disgraced on the world stage if the agreement did not pass.
Mr. Tsippras stressed that he would call on Panos Kammenos on Friday to take a clear position on whether the Defence Minister intended to withdraw his party’s support in the government, adding that if Kammenos departed from the coalition, he would ask for a vote of confidence from the House. As Tsipras said, he expected 154 MPs would vote “yes”.
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