The government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has survived a vote of confidence by a whisker, keeping alive hopes it may ratify an agreement with former Yugoslav Macedonia that would rename that country North Macedonia.
His ruling Syriza party was left with a minority of 145 MPs in the 300-seat legislature on Sunday, after its junior coalition partner, Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks party, walked out in disagreement over the Macedonia deal.
Five MPs bolted from Independent Greeks to back him, and he won over another MP from the centre-right party Potami, securing a 151-seat majority.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of the conservative New Democracy opposition party, saw the process of government majority-building quite differently during a heated debate bristling with allegations.
“This disgrace of borrowing MPs back and forth in order to create temporary majorities … You have used foreign policy to undermine national unity,” he accused Tsipras
For his part, Kammenos told Tsipras in parliament: “I ask you to stop the discussion on a vote of confidence and to announce that we are going to submit to the vote of the Greek people, and that we will respect that vote.”
Tsipras has rejected the idea of a referendum on the Macedonia deal. He plans to bring it to a parliamentary vote, possibly as early as next week, but not all 151 MPs who gave him a vote of confidence support the deal.