RPT: REVIEW - Greece's Tsipras Poised To Win Confidence Vote As Coalition Collapses Over Macedonia Deal

ATHENS/MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2019) Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has urged the parliament to support the government in a confidence vote he initiated after several members of the right-wing Independent Greeks (ANEL) party pulled out of the ruling coalition.

On Sunday, then-Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos announced that he was resigning and pulling his ANEL party from the coalition with Tsipras' leftist Syriza over strong opposition to the Athens-Skopje deal on renaming Macedonia.

Tsipras had accepted the resignation later in the same day and called a vote of confidence in his government. The motion of confidence will be discussed for two days, while the vote itself is slated for Wednesday evening.

The Greek prime minister expressed confidence that he would win the vote, and the government would finalize its four-year term and hold elections as scheduled � in the autumn of 2019.

Opening two-day debates over the confidence vote earlier on Tuesday, he called on the parliament to reaffirm its confidence in the government in a "clear way," so that the latter could complete important reforms in the next nine months of the term under the constitution.

"The Greek people made a historic choice in January 2015. They put their trust in this government to pull the country out of credit memoranda and the crisis, put an end to austerity, rebuild the Greek economy on a new solid basis and make the needs of the social majority a priority," Tsipras said.

During his speech, Tsipras sought to underscore the government's achievements, noting that the country exited its bailout program, stabilized the financial system, and began to recover from the economic crisis during his cabinet's four years in office.

"Greece in 2019 is a different country compared to the one we received in 2015 after a five-year disaster that you caused," Tsipras said, addressing the opposition.

Thanks to the government's efforts, Greece is once again a "stable country with an increased role in the international community and in our wider region."

"It is a country that has finally left behind the social devastation of the disastrous five years between 2010 and January 2015 and that is on the path toward healing the wounds, social solidarity, equality and justice. This is not an easy way, but we have already taken first steps together with the society and the Greek people," he stressed.

Tsipras, however, added that the country was yet to complete the constitutional review process, strengthen the parliamentary system, ensure protection of social rights, enhance democracy, and put an end to impunity of "those who want to abuse power given to them by the people." The prime minister also announced plans to raise the minimum wage.

REITERATING SUPPORT FOR MACEDONIA DEAL

Tsipras also drummed up support for the divisive Prespa deal on Macedonia's name change, which has become a stumbling block that wrecked the ruling coalition, noting that it was his patriotic duty to seize the historical opportunity to solve the Macedonian problem, regardless of the political backdrop.

He added that he respected all those who have differing views and opinions, including Kammenos, although he does not consider his actions to be correct.

Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) signed an agreement in June to change the latter's name to the Republic of North Macedonia. The deal is meant to open the way for Macedonia's accession to the European Union and NATO, which has long been blocked by Athens over concerns that the neighboring country might have territorial claims to Greece's own region of the same name.

Many political forces in Greece, including the ANEL party, have long been opposing any deal that would give the neighboring country the name of an ancient Greek region.

It is noteworthy that the ANEL party's withdrawal from the coalition came two days after Macedonia's parliament voted in favor of a constitutional amendment changing its name under a deal with Athens. The deal, however, remains divisive for Macedonia as well � Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov said he would not authorize the move but Prime Minister Zoran Zaev stated the decision did not require presidential approval.

The Greek parliament is now to ratify the deal.

The Greek government told Sputnik that it was confident that there will be no government crisis and it would win a vote of confidence.

According to parliamentary rules, a vote of confidence is adopted by a majority of parliament members present. The majority, however, must be at least two-fifths of the total number of lawmakers or no less than 120 votes in the 300-strong parliament.

If the government gets less than 150 votes, it will still lack full freedom to enforce laws. However, Tsipras intends to get at least 151 votes, otherwise he is ready to call early elections.

The ruling Syriza party has 145 votes, with six more votes expected to be given by lawmakers from the ANEL party, who refused to leave the government coalition, and independent members of parliament.

According to Konstantinos Papadakis, a European Parliament member from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), the vote of confidence is beneficial for both Tsipras and Kammenos, with the former willing to demonstrate that the ruling coalition still enjoys the parliament's trust and the latter seeking to capitalize on "resistance" by voting against the government.

"The vote of confidence is a development that serves both Mr Tsipras and Mr Kammenos parties objectives. On the one hand, Mr Tsipras will rescue his government with the votes of some of ANEL's deputies and on the other hand Mr Kamennos will maintain his parliamentary group while pretending that he resists against the anti-popular policy that he has backed up until today," Papadakis told Sputnik.

Papadakis expressed doubt that the ANEL party's pullout from the ruling coalition would have any serious consequences for the government, stressing that it enjoys wide support in the West.

"It is a government that has made concrete commitments to USA, NATO, EU, Germany, the Greek bourgeois class and wants to conclude these commitments by the time of the elections. Therefore, it is not a coincidence at all that these forces are the first to give a 'vote of confidence' to the SYRIZA government, as [US President Donald] Trump had done before, and as [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel did so in her recent visit to Greece in order to promote the Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkans in the context of the competitions with other relevant interests such as those of Russia," Papadakis argued.

The politician stressed that the KKE party would vote against the government in the confidence motion since the Greek people would similarly "vote against the government because it will continue the same barbarous anti-popular and dangerous policy that the previous governments also carried out."

When asked to suggest whether the Greek parliament would ratify the name change deal with Macedonia, despite the political split in the ruling coalition, he said that a switch from one party to another "to serve the anti-popular policy" was a "piece of cake" for some lawmakers, thereby hinting that the cabinet is likely to pass the controversial deal through the legislature.

According the politician, the Prespa agreement, which promotes the FYROM's accession to NATO, "maintains the seeds of irredentism in order to constitute a lasting destabilizing factor."