A messy "political divorce" between the up-until-recently coalition partners in Greece continued to generate headlines in the country, with former defense minister Panos Kammenos - the head of the smaller coalition constituent - blaming Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for personally recruiting deputies of his floundering party and promising Cabinet positions.
Kammenos left the Tsipras government and dissolved the "strange bedfellows" coalition between his small right-wing Independent Greeks (AN.EL) party and hard left SYRIZA over his opposition to the Prespa agreement between Athens and Skopje. Ratification of the latter has resulted in a name change for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) into the current Republic of North Macedonia.
"Three AN.EL deputies were bought-off with ministerial posts," the controversial Kammenos said on Wednesday evening, during an appearance on the Skai television station.
"I didn't expect Mr. Tsipras to take my deputies," he said, while claiming that he didn't back an opposition "no confidence" motion in June 2018 because there "were many fronts still open" and that the main opposition party's motion could not have reached 151 MPs voting down the Tsipras government.
