Greek lawmakers mull no-confidence vote over Macedonia name
ATHENS, Greece — Greek lawmakers debated a no-confidence motion against the government Friday over its tentative agreement to end a decades-old dispute with neighbouring Macedonia over that country’s name.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ left-led government is expected to easily survive the vote set for Saturday. His governing coalition controls 154 of the 300 seats in parliament, and the nationalist party that is a junior partner in the ruling coalition says it will reject the motion even though it opposes the agreement Tsipras struck.
“We back the government . and its work, until it is brought to completion,” Independent Greeks party lawmaker Maria Kollia Tsarouha said Friday.
Outside parliament in central Athens, a few hundred people protested the deal, which would rename Greece’s small northern neighbour North Macedonia in exchange for Greece dropping its objection to Macedonia joining NATO and the European Union.