[Intime News]
Former premier Antonis Samaras has called on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to oust his foreign affairs chief, George Gerapetritis, for allegedly giving in to Turkish demands in ongoing talks aimed at maintaining a positive momentum between Athens and Ankara.
Samaras, a hardline conservative who served as PM from 2012 to 2015, has in recent months openly criticized the government, questioning both the ideological direction of his own party and its policy on Turkey, which he perceives as too soft.
“The permanent appeasement of Turkish challenges is not a centrist policy. In this case, those who declare that in the name of ‘friendship and tranquility’ with Turkey they don’t mind ‘being labeled an appeaser’ must be sent home,” Samaras said in an interview with To Vima newspaper’s Sunday edition.
While Samaras did not name Gerapetritis, his comment was a clear reference to a statement the foreign minister made last October: “I don’t care if they call me an appeaser… If I am to leave a great legacy for my country for the next generations, a neighborhood that will be calm, a confident, stable, proud Greece, let them call me an appeaser,” he told Skai radio.
Samaras also put forward Kostas Karamanlis, another conservative former prime minister, for president when incumbent Katerina Sakellaropoulou’s term expires in 2025.
