“While Mr. Mitsotakis pretends to be enraged by the indeed provocative move of the new president of North Macedonia to omit the word “North” during her swearing-in yesterday, ND officials are holding up their patriotism helmets,” reports the SYRIZA-PS in his statement, in which he cites statements of ND executives.

The official opposition notes that “the predominance of the nationalist party VMRO-DPMNE in the elections endangers an Agreement beneficial to our country, which increased the geopolitical footprint and upgraded the role of Greece in the Western Balkans, with the responsibility of the ND and the disastrous omissions their”. He emphasizes that the question is whether the prime minister can impose “the official government position on his officials and free himself from the internal problems of the ND”. SYRIZA calls on Kyriakos Mitsotakis “to clarify his position and take all the necessary actions to preserve the Prespa Agreement”, asking him to “prove it in practice by definitively putting the patriotism helmets in Maximos’ closet and finally sanctioning the provisions three cooperation protocols which SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance will bring to the Parliament for a vote”.

“The progressive world of the country no longer tolerates the hypocritical and extreme populist logic with which Mr. Mitsotakis manages this particular issue, putting national interests below the interests of his party for the umpteenth time,” SYRIZA reports.

Regarding the above-mentioned statements of ND officials, SYRIZA mentions in particular that “the MEP candidate with the ND, Maria-Oraiozili Koutsoupia (OPEN, 13.05.24), surpassed even the harshest nationalists of the neighboring country by characterizing the Agreement of the Prespa which we ‘do well and don’t sanction’ (!) as Greece”. According to SYRIZA, “he even announced the termination of the Agreement – although he was forced to declare that he ‘does not question it’.” He repeated, however, that “the neighbors are doing well and questioning her”. In addition, according to SYRIZA, she said that “if the neighboring country continues and challenges the provisions (referring to the language and the name), let’s see where this will go, let’s denounce it because this agreement in any case was a retreat by Greece it was not the initial agreement that we Macedonians would like to have at this moment.”

“Is this the official line of the ND and the Mitsotakis government?”, SYRIZA asks and comments that “it is certainly another proof of the political deception of the citizens by a party which, on the one hand, declared that it would respect the Agreement and on the other the other, as a government, insists on not ratifying the three memorandums of cooperation that have been kept for years in the drawer of the Parliament, for fear of reactions from the Samaritan wing and the extreme right inside and outside the ND”.

In addition, it states that “more ‘moderate’, Andri Paraschou (Kontra Channel, 11.05.24), also ND candidate for the European Parliament, called the Agreement ‘bad’, this same Agreement which Mr. Mitsotakis calls in a strict style North Macedonia to observe”. SYRIZA comments that “at the very least, we hope that the two aforementioned executives have been informed of the name of the neighboring country, in order to also inform the current Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security, Vassilis Spanakis, who appeared on his television appearance in 2021 that he could not call “Northern Macedonia” with its constitutional name – “excellent” and he in the trade of fake and cheap “patriotism”.

Continuing, SYRIZA states that “the executives in question apparently did not have time to listen to the Minister of State, Makis Voridis (MEGA, 13.05.24), who, neither more nor less, reassured that there is no particular meaning to the blatant violation of the Prespa Agreement by the new President of North Macedonia, since ‘the swearing-in protocol apparently contained the designation “North”‘, although Mrs Silianovska deliberately omitted it”. SYRIZA reports that “no matter how much Mr. Mitsotakis tries to make the citizens, as well as the international community, forget that his party was the best sponsor of the extreme right during the negotiations and the signing of the Prespa Agreement, the executives they cannot hide the true face of ND”.