Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to chair a “mini” cabinet meeting at the Maximos Mansion at 3 pm on Friday, in light of the developments on the Macedonian issue following the PM’s meeting with his counterpart from FYROM Zoran Zaev in Davos 2 days ago. Mr Tsipras hopes to hammer out his next steps in an effort to find a compromising solution to the name dispute with FYROM.
The meeting will be attended by Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, Deputy Minister of European Affairs George Katrougalos and Deputy Foreign Ministers Yiannis Amanatidis and Terence-Quick. The PM met with National Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, on Friday morning and briefed him on his trip to Davos and the developments on the economy and the name dispute. Meanwhile, the PM’s office released a press bulletin stating that Mr Tsipras would meet with the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos at 6.30 pm to brief him on the developments of matters of national interest. The bulletin said the PM would also inform the leaders of the opposition parties separately on the matter tomorrow.

Although the President of New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis had initially rejected the PM’s invitation for tomorrow, Mr Mitsotakis reconsidered and said he would finally be attending tomorrow’s briefing on the Macedonian issue purely on the grounds of institutional order. The government is concerned over the divergence of opinions and the rising inflammatory rhetoric between its MPs and those of ANEL, the junior coalition party supporting the government in parliament, on the issue of the name dispute with FYROM.