ATHENS, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called on lawmakers on Tuesday to renew their confidence to his government during a crucial vote scheduled for Wednesday evening.
Addressing the plenary at the start of the debate, the Greek leader pointed to the achievements made since he first assumed office in January 2015, such as the exit from the painful bailout programs last August.
Tsipras requested deputies to allow his government to continue its work, including efforts to heal the wounds of the debt crisis with measures boosting social cohesion, until the next scheduled elections in autumn 2019.
The confidence vote was called by the PM on Sunday when the Independent Greeks (ANEL) the Right-wing junior partner in the two-partite ruling coalition withdrew from the government due to its opposition to the Macedonia name agreement reached in the summer with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).
After the ratification of the deal by Skopje's assembly, the Greek parliament is due to vote on it in the next two weeks.
Under the deal, FYROM will be renamed Republic of North Macedonia and the road to its accession to EU and NATO will open.
Panos Kammenos, ANEL's party leader and Defense Minister until Monday, is among the skeptics who believe that the agreement was not the best solution for the 28-year name dispute and that Skopje may still raise territorial claims in the future.
During his speech on Tuesday, Tsipras said that although he does not agree with his former political partner to leave the coalition over this issue, he respects his decision.
"My conscience and my patriotic duty required to make use of this historic opportunity to resolve the FYROM name issue, knowing that I will sustain a political cost," the Greek PM said, according to Greek national news agency AMNA.
After the departure of ANEL, Tsipras' Left SYRIZA party holds 145 seats in the 300-member strong parliament. Tsipras' SYRIZA now needs the support of opposition deputies to win the confidence vote.
Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos appeared confident that the government will win the vote on Wednesday to continue its work until the next general elections in October this year, he told local Alpha TV.
Many cabinet ministers have also expressed confidence that enough opposition MPs will cast a vote of confidence to the minority government.
Two ministers who belonged to ANEL, as well as one deputy of the centrist Potami (River) were expelled from the two parties on Monday and Tuesday after publicly stating that they will support the government in the vote.
Addressing the parliament on Tuesday, conservative main opposition New Democracy (ND) party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis talked about an ongoing "bazaar" of votes in the political life of the country and a "staged divorce" between ANEL and SYRIZA for party interests.
He argued that the split helps SYRIZA pass the agreement and stay in power and ANEL to win over votes of Greeks who opposed the deal in the next elections.
Mitsotakis also criticized the PM for choosing an serving senior military officer as new defense minister, noting that such a move was unprecedented and had not been adopted by any government after the military dictatorship in Greece (1967-1974), AMNA reported.
