As many predicted, the aftershock of the agreement between the governments of Greece and FYROM on the issue of the latter country’s name is being felt throughout the political establishment.
This week, the Syriza-ANEL coalition received yet another blow, when ANEL MP Yorgos Lazarides, a member for the second Thessaloniki electorate, announced his decision to resign from the party and continue as an independent.
This resignation followed that of deputy speaker of the House, Dimitris Kammenos, leaving the coalition with a frail majority of 152 MPs.
Both coalition partners have been pressuring Lazaridis to quit his parliamentary seat, and accused him of defecting to the opposition, arguing that just two weeks ago, he voted in favour of the government, when Nea Dimokratia presented a no-confidence vote.
The leading party of the coalition, Syriza, has been accusing the opposition of orchestrating a constitutional crisis, but the government has also been under attack, accused of nurturing the establishment of a new right-wing party, set up by former members of the Karamanlis government, that would steal votes from Nea Dimokratia in the next elections.
This might not be necessary, since the opposition party managed to enter a crisis of its own. On Wednesday, ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis ousted Constantinos Michalos, one of the most prominent members of the party’s political committee. Michalos, who is also the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, came forward in support of the Eurogroup agreement regarding Greece’s bailout exit and debt relief, crossing party lines.
“There is no room in Nea Dimokratia for any Trojan Horses,” reads the party’s statement, which is seen as a confirmation of its abandonment of centrism and shift to the far-right.