Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday again dismissed any possibility of holding snap elections next year, reiterating that he intends to stay in office to the very last day, i.e. October 2019.
He spoke to reporters on the sidelines of New Year's Eve event at his Maximos Mansion government office.
"We're looking for a date in October for elections," he said, meaning of the month's Sundays.
While pointing to the very last minute for elections, Tsipras was elusive over when his coalition government will bring the provisional Prespa agreement to Parliament for ratification. Moreover, he appeared confident that he'll find a simple Parliament majority to pass the agreement, which would finally resolve the long-standing fYRoM "name issue, as well as subsequent ratification of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's entry into the NATO alliance.
Tsipras and his once radical leftist SYRIZA party are significantly lagging behind main opposition New Democracy (ND) in all mainstream opinion polls for nearly two years now, with the contentious Prespa accord expected to severely test the cohesion of his now razor-thin "strange bedfellows" coalition government. Leftist SYRIZA is propped up by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos and his six remaining deputies in Parliament. The latter belong to the small, right-wing and populist Independent Greeks' (AN.EL) party.
Moreover, another "wildcard" in Tsipras' election "poker" is the fact that scheduled municipal/regional and European Parliament elections are set for May, with any electoral collapse rendering his already wobbly government a "lame duck" and his party without momentum heading into a general election.
Finally, asked about a working visit to Istanbul next month, Tsipras said it may possibly be held in early February 2019.
