Alexis Tsipras accused Prime Minister Antonis Samaras that, because of his views as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Greece is stuck in the name dispute for 20 years now.
The head of the most popular Greek left-oriented party, in an interview for the show “In first-person” of TV “Star”, said that if Greek politicians listened to the advice of SYRIZA two decades, the dispute would have been resolved under the conditions which now Greece sets as its red line, i.e. a compound name with a geographical qualifier.
– It has been proven that SYRIZA was right for the Macedonian issue 20 years ago. One who was proven wrong, and the one which will go down in history with a black ink, is the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time. We then proposed to accept the package “Pinheiro” and if we had accepted it, the dispute would have been already resolved. Now Greece requests this package, i.e. we require a composite name with a geographical qualifier, and the neighbor does not accept it – stated Tsipras in his interview.
To emphasize that Greece for two decades is in an awkward situation regarding the name dispute because Samaras, rather than in a favorable position, Tsipras said that many countries have already recognized Macedonia under its constitutional name, which does not correspond to Greek demands and desires.
– We do not think that the people of other countries, of the countries in our neighborhood, are our enemies – emphasized the leader of SYRIZA.
