The Greek government announced on Saturday the expulsion of former premier Antonis Samaras from the ruling party, after he openly accused New Democracy of following a policy of appeasement towards Turkey.

Samaras also put forward Kostas Karamanlis, another conservative former prime minister, for president when incumbent Katerina Sakellaropoulou’s term expires in 2025.

“We have said many times that former Prime Ministers have the special privilege of voicing their views and concerns on policy issues from time to time,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said in a statement on Saturday.

In an interview that will be published on Sunday, Samaras called on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to oust his foreign affairs chief, George Gerapetritis, for allegedly giving in to Turkish demands in ongoing talks aimed at maintaining a positive momentum between Athens and Ankara.

While Samaras did not name Gerapetritis, his comment was a clear reference to a statement the foreign minister made last October: “I don’t care if they call me an appeaser… If I am to leave a great legacy for my country for the next generations, a neighborhood that will be calm, a confident, stable, proud Greece, let them call me an appeaser,” he told Skai radio.

Marinakis also said any discussion about the presidency is “untimely”  and “constitutes an insult to the person and institution of the head of state.”

“All of the above cannot be tolerated or accepted…With this interview, Samaras places himself, for the second time after 1993, outside of New Democracy. After all, that’s what he was after…No one has the right to play with the stability of the country in these troubled times.”

Until now, the government’s response to criticism by Samaras and, to a lesser extent, Karamanlis had been that, as former prime ministers, they were entitled to express their opinions freely.

In 1993, Samaras and like-minded MPs bolted from New Democracy, bringing down the Mitsotakis government. Early elections brought the socialist PASOK back to power until 2004, when Karamanlis led the conservatives to victory. He also brought in Samaras, who had founded and eventually disbanded his own party, Political Spring. After Karamanlis lost to the socialists in 2009, Samaras was elected party leader, defeating Dora Bakoyannis, Konstantinos Mitsotakis’ daughter and Kyriakos’ elder sister.

Source: Ekathimerini.com