Tsipras for the Prespa Agreement / Three memoranda were never ratified – If I were prime minister I would have brought them a long time ago

“The conditions were ripe for the Prespa Agreement, if we had waited for it to mature more it might have rotted,” stressed Alexis Tsipras during the discussion he had with Zoran Zaev in the context of the 1st International Conference on Peace and Sustainable Development organized by the Institute Alexis Tsipras and the Zoran Zaev Foundation.

The former prime minister underlined that “the policy of procrastination and stagnation is a policy that is convenient for the leaders but is not in the interest of the people”. “He is probably not an ally of stability. The leaderships must resolve chronic issues,” he added.

Alexis Tsipras revealed how the idea was created to sign the historic agreement in Prespes, stressing that he had visited the area years ago.

“It was my idea to go to Prespes and I insisted. I got to know this area as a student and was impressed by its natural environment. Mainly, though, because Prespes is a place that, until our agreement, was synonymous with hatred, civil strife, suffering and war. It was the lake through which the defeated Democratic Army crossed in boats to what was then Yugoslavia and Albania. This area was heavily charged. The Prespes from now on, and throughout the ages, will not symbolize war, but peace and the reconciliation of peoples.”

At another point, Alexis Tsipras stated that “no activation of Article 19 will save us” stressing the necessity of “implementing and respecting the Constitution” because otherwise “there will be no European funds, it will not become a member of NATO, there may even be sanctions to people who do not comply with the agreement”.

At the same time, he expressed the hope that the new prime minister of the neighboring country “will respect the agreement and come to terms with reality” as “the whole world recognizes his country as North Macedonia”.

At the same time, he sent the message that “Greece must be synonymous with freedom, peace and justice”.

The mention to the 153 deputies

Alexis Tsipras made a special mention to the 153 MPs who supported and voted for the Agreement, under extremely adverse conditions. “They are the ones to whom we owe the fact that we wrote history. And from SYRIZA and from Potami and from independent MPs” said the former prime minister.

“I wonder if today, where even Scandinavian countries wish to join NATO, what would be the pressures that would be exerted on our country, on any government, in order to accept the accession to NATO of our neighboring country without a solution, with the then constitutional her name. I think this conflict should have been resolved much earlier. Because the conditions would not be ripe. The policy of procrastination and stagnation is a policy convenient for governments and leaderships when dealing with difficult issues. But, it is not a policy neither for the benefit of the people, nor for stability. The message we have to pass is that the leaderships should not let the problems ripen, because they will rot.”

When the Prespa Agreement “braked” temporarily

“The wisdom of this deal is that he put the safeguards in place beforehand. The subjunctive nouns have already been set. No triggering of Article 19 will save us if the very existence of this country does not exist in the future, if it does not respect the agreement. I want to be very harsh on this. What did the deal put in? Constitutional change. This was something extremely difficult on Zoran’s part to implement. And I should probably reveal something more to you: We had reached a point where we said it’s not working out, we’re not moving forward. And the talks were suspended for ten days. Because he had told me “I can’t, I can’t change the constitution”. And I told him I can’t back out of that. Make an effort, if you can’t, we’ll be friends again. Our friendship will remain, but we will not proceed with this historic agreement,” said Alexis Tsipras.

“The first was the constitution. The second has to do with the fact that there is no European perspective. So there are no European funds on the table. The third is that Stoltenberg is very clear in his statements about it being a condition of the deal. And the fourth, which few people, even the USA, know about, President Biden, signed an executive order that was approved by Congress, which provides for sanctions, even individual ones, for those who will not comply with the Prespa Agreement. So, I hope that the new prime minister of North Macedonia will try to keep the agreement and at some point he will get acquainted with a reality. That the constitutional name of the country is North Macedonia. Otherwise, he will have very big existential difficulties”.

Referring to foreign policy, among other things he pointed out: “We should invest in dialogue. Obviously, not forgetting that we have much more difficulties with our neighbors (from the east) than we had with our northern neighbors (North Macedonia). We should keep our red lines firm when it comes to our sovereign rights. Our politics should not be characterized by procrastination.

So, going back to the Prespa Agreement, if mutual trust is not built, with even more actions than signing an agreement, we will not be able to enhance the benefits we can have.”

“Three memoranda were never ratified by the Parliament, even though they were for the benefit of the country”, stressed Alexis Tsipras and accused Kyriakos Mitsotakis of not doing so for fear of internal party opposition. When asked if he would do it if he were prime minister again, he replied: “I would have brought them a long time ago. And I would not make my foreign policy strategy dependent on intra-party opposition and intra-party opposition. This is where I took on the cost with my (un)re-election with the Prespa Agreement. Wouldn’t I bear the cost against the internal party opposition?”