Before the confidence vote on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the vote in the name dispute with Macedonia in Greece, a number of parliamentarians have been threatened.
According to media reports, a politician was texting images of women with severed heads because she wants to vote for Tsipras and the agreement on the name of North Macedonia for the neighboring country.
Other MPs reported threatening phone calls, which also targeted their families. In the north of Greece and in the port city of Thessaloniki, countless billboards with photos of parliamentarians appeared in recent days. Among the counterfeits the question: „Will you (also our province) betrayed Macedonia?“ The police have so far arrested four suspects.
Vote of confidence tonight
The question of the renaming of neighboring Macedonia divides the Greek population. Prime Minister Tsipras negotiated with Skopje last year that the country should be called North Macedonia in the future. Because a northern Greek province also has the name Macedonia (ancient Greek: Makedonia), many people in Greece are against it. Because of this name dispute, Greece has been blocking Macedonia’s rapprochement with NATO and the EU for decades.
Tsipras’s coalition partner, Panos Kammenos, the right-wing defense minister, resigned on Sunday and had reneged on the coalition because he did not want to support the agreement on the new name. Tsipras then asked the vote of confidence that Parliament is voting on tonight. Next week is expected to be voted on the agreement to settle the name dispute.
