New Democracy calls for ‘national position’ on major foreign policy issues

Opposition New Democracy is pushing for a “national position” on all major issues of foreign policy and is calling on the government to clarify its stance in regard to fresh talks on the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

The conservative party’s demand for clarity came after Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias suggested this week that the leftist-led government would be looking for a “majority of lawmakers” and not a “majority of parties” when it came to deciding on the name issue.

Kotzias’s comment was seen as an apparent dig at the government’s coalition partner, right-wing nationalist Independent Greeks, whose leader, Panos Kammenos, said his party would never consent to a name containing the word “Macedonia.”