JOURNALISTI would like us to turn now to the other important issue, the Prespa Agreement, as it was completed. From now on, the neighbouring country is officially called Northern Macedonia. Please do correct me if I am mistaken, because as I also understand, the corresponding documents and requests are about to be sent from Skopje, the Capital city of Northern Macedonia, to the International Organizations of which it is a member. I think you are also personally satisfied with the completion of this whole process, aren't you?G. KATROUGALOS: Yes, I am. As we have said many times, it is a very good agreement which paves the way to a new period of bilateral amicable relations and cooperation between the two countries, but perhaps even more importantly, it stabilizes the wider Balkan region and gives us a valuable diplomatic capital that we can now put to good use where it will really make a difference...JOURNALIS: For your part, are you going to send the Verbal Note to the neighbour?G. KATROUGALOS: We already did this yesterday. It was sent, and indeed both countries have also sent the joint letter to the United Nations stating to the Secretary-General that the 30 year-old dispute has finally been resolved.JOURNALIST: I should like to ask the following question: What do you think of the fact that, from New Democracy, of course we hear somewhat different opinions, even though what seems to be a common theme is its claim that as the future government, with Kyriakos Mitsotakis as future Prime Minister, it will not forfeit the right conferred to Greece as a member of the European Union, and intends to impose a veto if Northern Macedonia does not fulfil the necessary conditions for its accession to the European Union. This position implies that this right has actually been forfeited through the Prespa Agreement. What is ultimately the case?G. KATROUGALOS: But this is just part of the nonsense you mentioned. It is obvious that we retain the right to impose a veto at any moment of the negotiation, and not only on matters of the European acquis, but also on matters concerning the implementation of the Prespa Agreement, because these are also issues of good neighbourliness. And to the misfortune of New Democracy, we are not alone in saying this. It is something that the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations (Johannes Hahn) also said clearly during an interview he granted to the newspaper "Nea" on 29/1. It is, therefore, yet another matter about which we have been crystal clear all along in our approach, though New Democracy claims that we have not done so.JOURNALIST: I think we will hear a lot more because it seems that some people in New Democracy do not want to follow this view, the conciliatory one in other words. Instead, they create a climate suggesting that many of these things can be revised and overturned and, ultimately, if in some years, in a while, they cannot be overturned because we have a Prespa Agreement that is both honourable and straightforward, the result of a compromise that has been hard to achieve, and yet we have now solved this problem, when some people feel outraged and realize that not even the Opposition can change it, then they will turn to extreme political solutions.G. KATROUGALOS: There are two big problems that you are correct in raising. The first problem is that within the ranks of New Democracy we witness an important split at present. On the one hand, there are people such as Ms. Bakoyannis who, because they have served in the domain of Foreign Policy, know that the Agreement is a good one. These people usually declare, despite their lingering reservations towards it, that from now on, the Agreement has become a law binding the country, which for better or worse they intend to enforce by calling our neighbouring country Northern Macedonia. On the other hand, there are other extreme voices, like its Vice-President, who say exactly the opposite.New Democracy, and especially its leader, are actually captives to this internal schism and that's why they cannot pursue an independent policy. The result of this split is that the wrong kind of messages are being sent out to these citizens you mentioned. These citizens are not, by definition, nationalists. But, because of the austerity regime imposed on them, they suffer from a wounded pride, which makes them particularly suspicious of the Prespa Agreement. And evidently, these wrong messages risk being sent out towards even more far-right directions than the far-right wing of New Democracy.The only antidote to these dangerous messages is actually to tell the truth to the people, and it is precisely this message that the Prime Minister tried to convey during the debate on the Prespa Agreement.JOURNALISĪ¤: We shall therefore also insist on this. Thank you very much for the interesting discussion. Have a nice day!
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