Greece’s government to seek name solution regardless of its political price

The incumbent Greek administration will be seeking a solution to the name dispute regardless of the political price it has to pay, provided that the other party is also demonstrating preparedness to solve it, because it takes two to tango, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Georgios Katrougalos told Greek MPs, MIA reported.

He accused the opposition party New Democracy of political irresponsibility, fake patriotism and of promoting nationalism. New Democracy leaders, Katrougalos said, have publicly admitted that they had approved a composite reference that would include the term ‘Macedonia’, but now they have changed their mind by 180 degrees and are not accepting the term to be included in the name of the norther neighbor.

Commenting on accusations of the opposition that the Alexis Tsipras-led government has been conducting a ‘secret diplomacy’, the Greek government official called it ‘hypocrisy’. He said the negotiations were being held in two ways, one involving a mediation by the UN and the other an intensive dialogue between the governments in Athens and Skopje. Namely, according to him, the latter covers Wednesday’s high-level meeting in Davos between the PMs Alexis Tsipras and Zoran Zaev.

Katrougalos reiterated that the government championed a composite name for overall use that would prevent any form of irredentism. The Alternate Foreign Minister called on all political powers in Greece to promote ‘genuine patriotism, one that is not abused to score political goals.”