The government has an obligation to tell people the truth about the negotiations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the name issue, main opposition New Democracy (ND) spokeswoman Maria Spyraki said on Saturday.
Prompted by a headline in the Greek newspaper “Ta Nea” – which claimed that Germany had offered Athens leeway on pensions as a trade-off for a solution in the name dispute – Spyraki repeated claims that the government was engaging in “secret diplomacy”.
“Is the government secretly negotiating a solution on the name issue to get a six-month deferment of pension cuts in exchange? An obligation that it saddled itself with through its meandering policies…Greeks have to know,” she said.
Replying, Greek foreign ministry sources urged Spyraki “not to trivialise foreign policy issues in this way” and noted that “they are more serious than Mrs. Spyraki”.
Sources from government headquarters, meanwhile, criticised her adoption of the newspaper’s claims, pointing out the paper’s links to a ship owner indicted in connection with a major drug trafficking case, and called it “seamless cooperation between parajournalism, graft and Mr. Mitsotakis’ ND, without any shame.”
