The President of major opposition party New Democracy (ND), Kyriakos Mitsotakis claimed the breakup of the government coalition was staged by PM Alexis Tsipras and his coalition partner the leader of the Independent Greeks (ANEL).
In an interview on ANT-1 nightly news bulletin, Mr Mitsotakis called on all the MPs who planned to vote for the government in the upcoming no-confidence motion to assume their responsibilities.

Responding on what his party intended to do on the Prespes Agreement, Mr. Mitsotakis stressed that if the agreement was not ratified by the current Parliament, then the whole deal would be completely renegotiated from scratch by the ND government, while he categorically denied that he was pressured by the German side to accept the Prespes Agreement during his recent meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel who visited Athens last week.

“The name [Macedonia] is inseparably linked to the other elements of the agreement. That is the springboard for the irredentist plans. The position of ND is the same as laid down by Konstantinos Mitsotakis. He never recognised the name Macedonia as he knew the risks. It is the same stance as Kostas Karamanlis took in Bucharest.” Mr Mitsotakis said.

Mr Mitsotakis claimed PM Tsipras and ANEL President Kammenos are in total collusion as government partners. “One not to put his signature on the Prespes Agreement and the other to get a vote of confidence”, he said. The leader of ND said Kammenos was “lending” MPs to Mr Tsipras who would back the SYRIZA-led government during the motion of no confidence.