Mitsotakis rejects Prime Minister’s invitation to TV Debate over FYROM

Greece's main opposition New Democracy on Thursday turned down Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' invitation for a televised debate with ND President Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the Prespes Agreement.

An announcement issued by the New Democracy press officer that international agreements are debated and ratified in Parliament, with the participation of all parties and all Greek MPs, "who must assume their historic responsibility," especially for an agreement as important as that settling the dispute with FYROM.

"This is nothing more than fine print for Mr Tsipras, who from the first made the national issue a 'tool' for petty political reasons and reviled the great majority of Greeks who disagree with him, branding them as far right. This divisive view is confirmed by his arrogance-filled announcement today," the announcement added.

The party called on Tsipras to explain to parliament why he intended to ratify the "damaging Prespes Agreement" and "hand over ...the so-called Macedonian ethnicity and language, which no previous Greek government had conceived of doing." If the prime minister was in a hurry to hold a debate, it added, he should call elections and let the citizens decide, in the party leader debates leading up to these.

The Greek Prime Minister said that the New Democracy Leader declined the invitation to a public debate because he had no real arguments nor a case to make in the debate.