Greece expels ex-PM Samaras from ruling party over criticism of Turkey stance

The Greek government said Saturday it has expelled former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras from the New Democracy ruling party after he criticised the government for being too conciliatory with Turkey.

Samaras had called on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to oust the country’s foreign minister for allegedly giving in to Turkish demands in ongoing talks between the countries dubbed “calm waters”.

Samaras, a hardline conservative who served as prime minister from 2012 to 2015, has in recent months openly criticised the government for being too soft with Turkey as well as for pursuing a so-called woke agenda in domestic social matters.

“The permanent appeasement of Turkish challenges is not a centrist policy. In this case, those who declare that in the name of ‘friendship and tranquillity’ with Turkey they don’t mind ‘being labelled an appeaser’ must be sent home,” Samaras said in an interview with To Vima newspaper.

Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said in a statement Saturday afternoon that Samaras “in his last interview, expressed his total disagreement with the whole of the current government policy.

Moreover, in an unchivalrous and provocative manner, he adopted extreme lies, distorting statements by the Foreign Minister which have been repeatedly and comprehensively clarified.”

The statement said that with his comments, Samaras has “placed himself” out of the New Democracy party. “No one has the right to gamble with the stability of the country in these troubled times”, it said.

Samaras had already been expelled from the party in 1993, when as foreign minister he took a hardline stance in a dispute with North Macedonia over the name of Greece’s northern neighbour.

After causing the fall of the government of then Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis – father of the current prime minister – and forming his own party, he returned to New Democracy in 2004 and became the president of the party in 2009 and was elected prime minister after the 2012 general elections.

Samaras, who does not hold a cabinet position in the current government, said Saturday that his expulsion resulted from “arrogance and an obvious lack of composure” from Mitsotakis.